Update: The cameraman’s name was Bryce. He was from the Boston area. He was with the show for seven years and by all accounts was a great and “positive” guy.
Being a police officer is a dangerous job. Filming them sadly is too. A cameraman for Cops was shot during a confrontation between authorities and an armed robbery suspect on Tuesday night, and tragically, the cameraman died from his injuries.
Details on what exactly happened are still a little bit fuzzy at this point, but according to TMZ, an episode of Cops was being shot in Omaha, Nebraska earlier this week. A call came in announcing an armed robbery at a fast food restaurant. Unfortunately, once there, the situation quickly spiraled out of control and devolved into a gunfight. When it was all over, two people were hit: the suspect and the cameraman. The suspect was quickly pronounced dead, and despite the best effort of paramedics, the cameraman later died from his injuries, mostly because one of the rounds was able to slip inside a hole in the arm of his bulletproof vest.
Neither the police nor the producers of Cops have released any information about the fallen cameraman, though based on the 911 call, we do know he was a white male. Regardless of his full identity, however, Cinema Blend’s sincerest thoughts go out to his entire family for this unspeakably tragedy. He’ll clearly be missed.
If nothing else, this death underscores the unpredictable nature of shooting reality television shows. Over the years, we’ve seen contestants get severely burned on Survivor. We’ve seen extreme injuries on The Amazing Race. Cameramen aren’t immune to the dangers and pressures that come with working in extreme conditions.
