VIDEO: Dr. Smith Home Burns in Coudersport, Ambulance Crew Member Assaults Reporter
The home of Dr. Smith and family caught fire the afternoon of July 22.
In this video, footage of the fire and a member of the Coudersport Ambulance Department assaulting a CoudyNews reporter.
Let me say, in all the news I have covered, I have never hindered or got in the way of emergency personnel, and do not have plans to do so. In fact, any time I have gone to cover an accident scene or other such incident, I do everything I can to stay out of the way and not be noticed. There was no reason for what happened today.
When I neared the scene, and I was quite far away and across the road in a yard, a woman (seen in this video) began telling me I could not be there (despite the fact that there were several other individuals already standing in the grass far ahead of me). I told the woman I was with the media and asked several times where I could go to shoot video, asking her if I could join the other people down in the grass across the street.
She continued to deny me any reasonable access anywhere near the fire. Mind you, I was completely across the road and down approximately two homes from where the fire even was.
After I finally had enough of the woman telling me to leave, I turned the camera on to start filming what I could of the fire. Since the woman was telling me that I could not be there, I turned the camera in her direction. That is when she took a swipe and smacked my camera (which I believe is damaged since the video here is really shaky). The woman then threatened to ‘call the cops’.
She also falsely informed me that I did not have a right to videotape. We have every right to videotape – the Supreme Court has already ruled on that. This woman was acting as a public official in a public place and we have every legal right to videotape her and the fire.
I would also like to add, that shortly after the dispute with the woman, the Editor of a local newspaper was given full access to walk right up the road, much much closer than we ever were to the scene.
