Former New York Times contributor Brent Renaud was killed by Russian occupation forces just outside Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, Ukrainian national police reported on Sunday. At least two others were wounded in the same attack, according to reports.
From Fox News’ report:
The Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv Region tweeted photos Sunday purportedly showing a bloodied journalist, his U.S. passport, and his press badge enclosed in a U.S. peacekeeper holder.
Both documents bore identification photos and the name Brent Renaud.
The press badge was labeled New York Times and listed names of a senior and executive producers for Renaud and the address of the New York City office for The Gray Lady.
Journalist Paul Ronzheimer tweeted video of one wounded journalists, said to be among Renaud’s colleagues, along with the caption, “A 51-year-old US journalist was killed today in Irpin, a Kyiv suburb. His colleague, with whom he was traveling, was injured and rescued. The video we took under the bridge shows the evacuation of the injured colleague.”
Ein 51-jähriger US-Journalist ist heute in Irpin, einem Vorort von Kyiv, getötet worden. Sein Kollege, mit dem er unterwegs war, konnte verletzt gerettet werden. Das Video, das wir unter der Brücke aufgenommen haben, zeigt die Evakuierung des verletzten Kollegen. pic.twitter.com/TemuQaUL50
— Paul Ronzheimer (@ronzheimer) March 13, 2022
Renaud, 51, contributed to the New York Times as recently as 2015 but was not officially reporting for the outlet at the time.
The New York Times released an official statement Sunday, saying, “”We are deeply saddened to hear of Brent Renaud’s death. Brent was a talented filmmaker who had contributed to The New York Times over the years. Though he had contributed to The Times in the past (most recently in 2015), he was not on assignment for any desk at The Times in Ukraine. Early reports that he worked for Times circulated because he was wearing a Times press badge that had been issued for an assignment many years ago.”
Journalist Nick Stylianu added details, noting that Renaud and his colleagues had been there to film refugees as they attempted to flee their wartorn cities.
“Head of the Kyiv Police Department says that Russian troops opened fire on a car with foreign journalists in and shot dead 51-year-old New York Times videojournalist Brent Renaud in Irpin. One of his colleagues is injured and is in hospital. #Ukraine,” Stylianu tweeted.
“His colleague is conscious and is receiving treatment — he was taken to hospital by a Ukrainian ambulance. He confirms they were filming refugees making the trip across what’s left of makeshift bridges northwest of the city. They had just passed a military checkpoint.”
His colleague Juan explained that they had been offered a ride from one bridge to another, and that Renaud had been “left behind” after they were shot.
WATCH:
🔴🔴 Two American journalist shot by Russian at Irpin bridge. One is under surgery at the main hospital in Kyiv and the other was shot at the neck. pic.twitter.com/9lihX1JJ58
— annalisa camilli (@annalisacamilli) March 13, 2022
“We crossed a checkpoint and somebody started shooting at us,” the colleague, identified only as “Juan,” said. “My friend is Brent Renaud, and he’s been shot and left behind.”
“And how is he? You don’t know what happened to him?” the woman filming him asked.
“I don’t know. He was — I saw him being shot in the neck and we got split — I got pulled —” Juan said that he was pulled into an ambulance and transported to the hospital after that, and he did not know Renaud’s status at the time.