San Francisco Bay area news crews targeted by robbers

Camera crews from major Bay Area television stations and photographers from two newspapers have been robbed of their pricey gear.

A television cameraman wasn't so lucky on July 2 when two television news crews were robbed during a live broadcast from San Francisco's picturesque waterfront.

The assailant and two accomplices escaped in a late-model BMW with two stolen cameras and two tripods.

The crews that morning were reporting on the shooting death of a young woman allegedly killed at random by a Mexican national living in the country illegally.

Assaults on routine assignments in the San Francisco Bay Area have become so commonplace that television stations have hired armed guards to sometimes ride with news crews.