Jo Ling Kent was live on air reporting the demonstration in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood when a flash-bang grenade likely thrown by police to protesters hit her arm.
- Jun 3, 2020
AceShowbiz - An NBC News correspondent has given an update on her condition after she was seen in a video getting hit with a flash-bang grenade during a live broadcast on Monday night, June 1. Jo Ling Kent was reporting a protest in Seattle when it happened.
Taking to her Instagram and Twitter page on Tuesday, Jo assured everyone that she and her team are "ok" and "safe" despite the incident caught on camera. "Hey everyone. Thankfully, our whole team is ok and safe. I'm totally fine," she wrote, adding, "my jacket sleeve got singed and that's it."
Jo expressed her gratitude to her team and people who expressed their concerns, saying, "Extremely grateful to my producer @ezra.kaplan, photographer @sammywinslade, audio @coryleibin and our two security guards. And thank you for the sweet texts, calls and tweets." In her tweet, she also apologized for "the curse words" as some people were heard throwing expletives in the video of her reporting.
Jo, wearing a mask to protect against tear gas, was reporting from a sports complex about the demonstration in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood when her left arm was hit by a fiery, orange burst. The network initially said that it was a firework, but after reviewing the footage the news channel determined that it was a flash-bang grenade mostly likely fired by police.
In the video, Jo said police were approaching the demonstrators before they began throwing flash-bang grenades at the protesters. Jo and her crew quickly left the area, as protesters scrambled and ran to safety.
Brian Williams, NBC's in-studio anchor, said that the network has dispatched security details to accompany reporters covering the protests. A number of news reporters have been injured, arrested or harassed while on the job covering the protests in the wake of George Floyd's death.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Police Department declared that the Capitol Hill protest had become a riot after demonstrators threw "rocks, bottles and fireworks at officers and is attempting to breach barricades one block from the East Precinct."
