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A Ukrainian police officer at the gruesome scene where an American journalist was shot and killed and at least two others were wounded by Russian forces Sunday had a gut-wrenching message.
“Tell America, tell the world, what they did to a journalist,” the outraged officer told PBS correspondent Jane Ferguson from the roadside scene near Irpin, outside of Kyiv, where the body of American journalist and former The New York Times contributor Brent Renaud was lying beneath a blanket.
AMERICAN JOURNALIST KILLED AT CHECKPOINT, RUSSIAN AIRSTRIKE KILLS 35, WOUNDS 135: LIVE UPDATES
Renaud was not on assignment for The Times in Ukraine but contributed to the newspaper in the past, most recently in 2015, a NYT spokeswoman told Fox News Digital. He and another journalist were reportedly headed to Irpin to take photos of refugees fleeing the area and were offered a ride. Initial reports said Russian forces fired upon their car, but Fox News has not independently confirmed who fired.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Pravda Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, shared a video on Telegram purportedly showing the wounded American journalist lying on a hospital bed in the capital, telling a spokeswoman for the Okhmatdyt Hospital recording him that he was separated from his colleague, Renaud, who was left behind. Ukrainian Parliament also shared the video on Twitter.
The man, who said his name was Juan and he was from the U.S., described how both he and Renaud approached a second bridge in the car and crossed a checkpoint near Irpin when they were fired upon.
Speaking while medical staff attended to his wound, he said he was brought to the hospital by an ambulance and did not know the status of his colleague. Initial reports identified him as Juan Arredondo, and an Instagram account with the same name said he was a journalist for National Geographic and an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
Fox News has not independently identified him or his employment status, and requests for comment to NatGeo and Columbia went unanswered Sunday.
Director Brent Renaud attends The 74th Annual Peabody Awards Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street on May 31, 2015 in New York City.
(Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Peabody Awards)
In an appearance on CNN Sunday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he just heard reports about an American journalist killed before coming on air and still needed to confirm information.
“If in fact an American journalist was killed, it is a shocking and horrifying event,” Sullivan told CNN host Dana Bash. “It is one more example of the brutality of Vladimir Putin and his forces. They’ve targeted schools and mosques and hospitals and journalists. And it is why we are working so hard to impose severe consequences on him and to try to help the Ukrainians with every form of military assistance we can muster to be able to push back against the onslaught of these Russian forces.”
The Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv Region first tweeted photos purportedly showing a bloodied Renaud, his U.S. passport and his photo ID badge for The New York Times enclosed in a holder labeled U.S. peacemaker. In another video from the scene of the shooting, Ukrainian police officer Alexander Bugai said that in addition to 51-year-old Renaud being killed, two others were wounded.
It wasn’t immediately clear if a third journalist was shot or if it was the driver of the car injured. A graphic photo included in the post appeared to show a gunshot wound that pierced Renaud’s skull.
According to his bio on IMBD, Renaud was a Peabody and DuPont Award winning filmmaker and spent the past two decades producing films and television programs with his brother Craig.
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“The Renaud Brothers are best known for telling humanistic stories from the World’s hot spots and their projects have covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, political turmoil in Egypt and Libya, the fight for Mosul, extremism in Africa, cartel violence in Mexico, and the youth refugee crisis in Central America,” according to the biography.
Their work has won many of the top awards in television and journalism, including a Peabody Award, two Columbia DuPont Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, an IDA Award, a DGA nomination for Best Directors and multiple Emmy nominations, the bio said.
