Masked Man Attacks Korean-American Reporter on Live TV
By Ryan General
A local TV reporter doing a beat assignment report of an attempted rape in New York City’s Lower East Side on Friday night was suddenly pestered by an assailant in a hockey mask.
CeFaan Kim of ABC 7 NY was reporting live at Delancey St. when a man put an arm around his neck in an apparent attempt to get attention, NY Daily News reports.
The man then began saying: “Check out my video!” and “Majesty Da Rebel!” toward the camera as Kim was closing his broadcast.
When the cameraman shifted the focus away from him, the man shouted: “Put the camera on me! What’s up! What’s up!”
Kim struggled to free himself from the stranger’s arm but he was pushed and shoved to the ground.
The reporter, a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant, then got up and confronted the man, who at this point had already removed his hockey mask.
Being separated by two other people, the man yelled: “I didn’t attack you…you attacked me!”
Following a brief stare down, the man fled and has not been caught by the police. Kim was reportedly not badly injured and said he suffered “just a scrape and a bruise.”
“Thank you to everyone who was concerned about my well-being,” Kim posted as a Facebook status on Saturday.
“Guy totally snuck up on me. He wouldn’t get off me so I shoved him off and then he pushed me to the ground. Thank you to my crew and the random stranger who kept us separated and calmed me down in the heat of the moment… because I’m not gonna lie… when someone puts their hands on you, it’s hard not to get amped up.”
The following morning, he published the video of the bizarre incident on his Twitter account.
A graduate of New York University, Kim is currently a member of The Asian American Journalists Association and serves as Co-Chair of the Media Watch Committee, faculty of AAJA’s Media Institute, and as a mentor for the organization, according to his Facebook bio.
The man in the hockey mask was later identified by as Key Jonta Foster, AKA “Majesty Da Rebel”, who told NY Post that he did it to promote his musical career.
“I’m not scared to deal with the consequences,” Foster was quoted as saying. “They’ll probably interrogate me, ask me what happened. White guys bomb video reporters all the time. A black man tries to get air time and then gets beat up by the reporter. I’m gonna do what I gotta do and seize an opportunity.”
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