Kevin Nishita
Kevin Nishita courtesy Colma Police Department
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A security guard has died after he was shot while he protected a San Francisco Bay Area television news crew covering a smash-and-grab theft, part of a rash of organized retail crime in the region.

“We are devastated by the loss of security guard and our friend, Kevin Nishita. Our deepest sympathy goes to Kevin’s wife, his children, his family, and to all his friends and colleagues,” KRON-TV’s vice president and general manager, Jim Rose, said in a statement issued Saturday.

Nishita was an armed guard for Star Protection Agency and provided security for television news crews in the region, who are often targeted by robbers for their equipment.

He was shot in the abdomen during an attempted robbery of KRON-TV’s camera equipment near downtown Oakland on Wednesday, police said.

The news crew was covering a recent robbery where a group of thieves broke in and stole from a clothing store.

A reward of $32,500 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in Nishita’s killing.

Nishita was a police officer for the cities of Hayward, San Jose, Colma before retiring in 2018. The Alameda County Sheriff’s office said deputies escorted his body from the hospital with full law enforcement honors.

“This senseless loss of life is due to yet another violent criminal act in the Bay Area. We hope that offering a reward will help lead to the arrest of those responsible so they can face justice for this terrible tragedy,” Rose said.

The region has been struck by organized retail thefts in which bands of thieves, some carrying crowbars and hammers, break into high-end stores and snatch merchandise.

Similar thefts have been reported in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills and elsewhere in the country.

At least eight thieves stormed a Home Depot store in Lakewood on Black Friday and grabbed hammers, crowbars and sledgehammers in the tool section before dashing off in a getaway vehicle, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Four people who may have participated in the Home Depot theft were later arrested in Beverly Hills after officers stopped two cars that were part of a caravan of vehicles driving around the city’s business district, police Lt. Giovanni Trejo said. A bystander called police after seeing that some of the vehicles did not display license plates, he said.

Meantime, police in Los Angeles arrested three people suspected of storming a designer clothing store on Melrose Place after stopping a vehicle and seeing clothes in plain view, said LAPD Officer Mike Lopez. He said more than 10 people ransacked another store on La Brea Avenue.

The thefts are believed to be part of sophisticated criminal networks that recruit people to steal merchandise in stores throughout the country and then sell it online. Experts and law enforcement officials say the thefts are ratcheting up as the holiday shopping season gets underway.

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90 COMMENTS

  1. Too bad, no one is going to be caught for his murder. They elected the laws and politicians for the area. Let them figure out how to get out of the mess they created.

    • I live in the bay area. I did not elect anybody. All the candidates I voted for lost. This dumbass’ they must want it that way’ meme is just that, dumbass.

      • This is why we have open borders. They’re letting millions in so the media can run sob stories about kids that know nothing other than America, so we have to give them citizenship, or at least voting rights. They’re using the California model on the rest of the country, also known as foreign election interference.

        “In Reynosa, Mexico, at a migrant camp, the United Nations IOM helpfully doles out debit cards to aspiring US border crossers.”

        • Insulting/name calling – check
          Ad hominin – check
          Use of racist in any context – check

          Seeing Dacian that hot and bothered seems to suggest Dude is onto something.

        • dacian, There you go again. Trying to make a case where you have not a shred of evidence to back up your position. Nothing really new there, is it?
          Maybe you haven’t seen any of your illegal alien friends arrested in the smash and grab because they haven’t been caught yet?
          As a matter of fact according to your Leftist Lame Stream Media, there have only been seven arrests.
          99%of the illegal aliens are Hispanic. Just for your edification, there are only three races and Hispanic is not one of them.

        • “its tough to even read the hate that you spit out every time you post. F-You”

          You don’t understand irony do you?

          “Dud Brain blaming immigrants”

          Where did I blame immigrants for anything? Can you quote me on that? I don’t blame them at all. I very clearly blamed “They.” Can you figure out who “They” is? Obviously not. You’re programmed to scream racist whenever the topic of illegal immigration comes up. There’s a reason for that. I don’t expect you to understand the why. They program you to jump, and you obediently jump every time.

        • Some one is frustrated because their extensive studies in “Gender Identity in Marxian Dialecticism” has very few career opportunities.

        • “Go back and read your own posts they are all seething in racism and hate.”

          I’d ask you to quote me so we can discuss it, but I’ve already asked a million times and you never do. All you do is stomp your feet and hurl insults. Void’s comment was dead on.

          If you really want to make the world a better place, start with the man in the mirror.

        • dacian, It seems that the”sickening lies” come fro you and your Leftist-Socialist propagandists. You might want to look in your own back yard for the racism and hate that spills out of your fingers like water over a dam.

      • jwm said “This dumbass’ they must want it that way’ meme is just that, dumbass.”

        It’s not 1 person, or 50 people, or even 1000 people. It’s the will of the voters, overall. So, no, YOU don’t want to life in a shitehole, but millions of others do.

        Are kids even exposed to civics classes these days? At my age, I memory gets vague, but I believe that I had 8 years of social studies, civics, and my least favorite, Problems of Democracy. That was all before my college years – there was more in college if you cared to take the courses. Today, the kids are being taught Critical Race Theory instead.

      • My aunt and grandmother used to live in Berkeley California. I spent many summers visiting them coming from Sacramento. Both of them are gone now. By joining the US Army it got me out of California. For which I am very grateful. I understand in Bay Area politics very well. In the late 1980s and 1990s the Bay Area had become a really beautiful place. Compared to what it once was a 1970s.

        • What? The Bay Area a beautiful place in the 80s and 90s? I suggest that your memory has failed you. I have lived in CA since 1959 and have weak-minded relatives who live in the Bay Area. It could be a beautiful place. Herb Caen, a columnist for The Examiner used to call San Francisco “Bagdad by the Bay.” He didn’t mean the Bagdad of S. Hussein, he meant the Bagdad of the fairy tale Arabian Nights. The building of the 580 freeway ruined Oakland and the hippies in Haight-Ashbury ruined SF. I know SF had become a rectal orifice when I saw bums smoking pot on the steps of City Hall.

          There is a book called San Fransicko by Michael Shellenberger. Read it. He exposes the underbelly of drugged out ‘Frisco.

        • to Old Lefty
          As a kid with my elderly relatives, I had a great time riding the BART. It was clean and safe back then. And the cable cars, after the rebuild that happened in the 1980’s. As an adult in the 1980’s and 1990’s, I felt safe to walk around SF and Oakland at night time. And I did on many occations. I even went jogging in both cities back then wearing my US Army PT unifrom!!
          And nobody caused me any trouble.

          “I know SF had become a rectal orifice when I saw bums smoking pot on the steps of City Hall.”

          I believe things went to crap when it became acceptable to do any drug in public, and have sex in public. And you’re not supposed to hold the sexually liberated or the drug legalization crowd accountable.
          You’re supposed to blame the conservatives.

  2. One of my first questions is …why were members of the news crew not armed also?

    Obviously they know they are targeted “victims” of violent crime. Only an idiot goes into something where they know they are a targeted “victim” type without taking precautions of overall superiority in protection and defense. So why are they only using one armed person against gangs of armed criminals knowing they are frequently targeted by armed criminal gangs?

    Countering armed criminal gang attacks usually needs armed “fire team like” counter attack or defense for a group of “victims” due to the way criminal gangs attack. One of the first things an armed criminal gang does today is try to neutralize any armed resistance and separate members of the group into individual battles where they outnumber the individual. To counter this a coordinated group effort is needed, a coordinated armed group effort against armed criminal gangs.

    • This man died because these news people wanted a sacrificial target they hoped would protect them long enough to overcome the attack. They were not willing to take on the responsibility of participating in the own safety by also being armed knowing they are targeted by armed gangs.

    • “One of my first questions is …why were members of the news crew not armed also?”

      San Fran refuses to issue concealed carry permits to pretty much anybody who isn’t a retired cop…

        • Hopefully next June they might get their own permits, but I seriously doubt the station will authorize the ‘talent’ (or any other of the news crew) being armed…

        • well, ya know…. there are two thoughts on that…they can capture the news or be the news. I’d hate to be the one that explains to their kids that “daddy was working on a story the station sent him to cover knowing there was a threat out there but he couldn’t protect himself when bad people came along.”

      • @Geoff,

        Here in L.A. County, where our Sheriff Villanueva famously stated at the beginning of this year that he would be issuing CCWs to any applicant who passed a BGC and went thru the necessary hoops, I’m still waiting for a call from a Detective for the CADOJ-mandated interview before approval. It’s almost December. I submitted my application back in July.

        I know others who submitted theirs back in the summertime as well, and none of them have been contacted, either.

        Methinks our dear Sheriff was merely saying things that politically benefited him at the time.

    • I wonder if the news teams targeted are those that report actual news, or report what they are told to report. Using thugs to terrorize the news teams would be another way to control the narrative.

      • They have expensive camera equipment and work in media, therefore they must be rich.

        Isn’t commercial grade video equipment a bit too specialized for domestic use? While expensive, it would not have much pain value. Especially with the network logos still attached.

    • This happened in California Bay Area. Do yu have any idea what it takes for any “commoner” to actuall GET a Mothe May I Card to carry in ANY BayArea county? No, didnt think so.

      ALL those counties are “May (not) Issue venues. Santa Clara had a sheriff got her sorry self in trouble for using preferred treatment in “granting Mother May I Cards to select “generous” individuals. No one else got any. San Jose, San Mateo, Contra COsta, San Francisco,Sonoma, Marin, Alameda, NONE will issue those cards to commoners. This guy was a former LE officer, and thus had his Mother May I Card for life. This resulted directly in his death.

      One way the TV crews could be managed is to establish “pernament residency” for all members in some of the conties where the Sheriff is happy to issue a Mother My I Card to anyone who can lawfully possess firearms. Over the ills into the Central Valley, or south of San Jose county, all those counties issue the Cards by the thousand. Once issued a card in any county, you are now authorised to carry in every county in the state. These crews are done a disservice by their being put out in pubic disarmed Califorona law NEES changed… along with the policies on dealiing witih the crimes these crews are out there covering.

      Best solutioin: leave that SHole stte for another where roperty rights and civil rights and natural rights are all upheld. Califina has not been in that category for decades. Not likely to attain taht status anytime in the forseeable futuire. It will continue to become the lwless vilolent SHole it is now, in everypert of that state.

    • Try getting a concealed carry permit in the Bay Area. You have a better chance of winning the Powerball Lottery. I don’t know about this article but I read in another report of the shooting that the cop was unarmed. I don’t know the real truth, but I do know that unless you are a politician or a hollywood personality, your chances of getting a CCW are as I mentioned.

  3. Some CA criminal coddling judge will probably let the perp walk on a thousand dollar bail like one did for the perp in Wisconsin. How’s Defund the Police working for ya CA?

    • No! No bail, on OR release. The state legislature passed new regulations last year that changed the bail laws. I don’t know their status as I think the Deputy District Attorneys Association in Los Angeles County filed a lawsuit over the legislation and it is on hold. But in any event, you would be astounded at the number of OR releases and the crimes that are ORd in Californication.

    • Let’s stay within reality. Crazies blamed Bush for everything, including hurricanes and global warming. The same crazies blamed Trump for hurricanes, global warming, the history of slavery, and more.

      Maybe Brandon deserves more blame than any six Republicans, but only because he was a parasite in Washington for half a century before squatting in the White House.

      Can’t blame every problem in the country on Brandon. Californians are responsible for the shitehole they live in.

    • Notice that the Ruling Class (television stations consider themselves part of the Ruling Class) attempted to exempt themselves from the environment of their own making.

      Remember, the Ruling Class tells us that:
      1) “Theft is just a property crime.”
      2) “That is what insurance is for.”
      3) “You don’t need to be armed if you cooperate with your robbers.”

      Of course the television news crew disavowed all three of those directives when they hired an armed guard. Clearly they do not believe in nor live by their own standards.

        • The Libertarians, Liberals, and the Left all control California. All three of them are responsible for the current climate of easy theft in the former golden state. They wrote and supported proposition 47.

          From 2014

          “Certain property offenses such as shoplifting, grand theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, fraud, and writing a bad check will all be considered misdemeanor offenses, as long as these crimes involve $950 or less.”

          “The success of this measure indicates that sentencing reform is starting to become palatable to more than just libertarians, but the general public. Criminal justice reform is certainly an issue both Democrats and Republicans agree is going to play a central role in the 2016 presidential election. Let’s hope that what happened in California last night may be replicated elsewhere, either by legislators or voters themselves.”

          https://reason.com/2014/11/05/california-voters-make-possession-of-mos/

          Now it needs to be asked.

          Why do Libertarians Liberals and Leftist believe minority owned businesses don’t need the protection that more wealthy businesses get???
          Because in the San Francisco Bay Area, the small businesses that are being looted, are mostly minority-owned ones.

          But it was mostly white libertarian white liberal or white leftists who supported proposition 47. The only way to repeal it is to go through the proposition repeal process. Which means getting signatures from the voters to put it on the ballot for a vote. A very long and painful process. As hundreds of thousands a retail items will be stolen every week.

          And yes I know what I’m saying is making some people very uncomfortable.

  4. “We hope that offering a reward will help”

    The only thing that will help is making an example out of every single person that steals anything. Yes, anything. Just pretend that they’re Republicans and throw the book at them.

    “News crew robbed while covering a robbery.” Without a 180 in governing, this place is a lost cause. Imagine blue state conservatives populating purple states. They would never lose another statewide or nationwide election again. Time for a tactical retreat.

  5. There is more than enough blame for what is happening to go around. I believe the media deserves a big ol’ slice of that pie. If I were hired by a news crew for security I’d be tempted to escort them into the thick of things and walk away. I would leave them with a parting thought; “You helped start this shit show. Enjoy!”

  6. Eventually, a plurality of the citizens are going to give up on the local government because of it’s ineptitude and will organize to take of the problem themselves.

    I think that’s one of the reasons the Establishment went after Rittenhouse; because he was part of a group of ordinary citizens who tried to fill the void intentionally left by the local government.

    One thing’s for sure…the soft on crime policies of the Left aren’t working.

    • Unfortunately, that’s their actual plan. Make things get so bad that the sheep beg for the master to do whatever it takes to stop the anarchy, regardless of the loss of freedom that entails.

    • Seven out of 10 crimes (70% – all crimes violent or not, including property, and racial bias hate crimes against white and black and other races) in Washington DC are committed by blacks. ~70% is about the same ratio the FBI crime report for nationwide outlines for inclusive of all.

      • “~70% is about the same ratio the FBI crime report for nationwide outlines for inclusive of all.”

        should have been

        ~70% is about the same ratio AVERAGE the FBI crime report for nationwide outlines for inclusive of all crimes committed by blacks.

        • sound awake, NO, it is not “obvious”. The retired officer did what any decent law abiding citizen who took a job to protect the camera people. The equipment was only secondary.

        • My own opinion is that he should not have been there by himself being the only armed person, but he was.

          Its a very telling thing that the station wanted the news crew out there, knew that news crews are targets for armed gangs, but didn’t care enough to hire a suitable armed contingent that could be effective against an armed gang. I have no doubt he did the best he could, engaged and defended, but he needed help.

          The station should have hired more armed security, trained armed security. In my opinion the station should not send their news crews into violent situations or possibly hostile situations where violent gangs/criminals can target them without at least an armed fire team size protection contingent at a minimum.

          “This senseless loss of life is due to yet another violent criminal act in the Bay Area. We hope that offering a reward will help lead to the arrest of those responsible so they can face justice for this terrible tragedy,”

          Yes it was senseless, and you contributed to it happening by not providing suitable protection for your news crew knowing there was a threat that although not realized in every case still existed in the form of armed gangs being attracted to news crews to steal their equipment.

        • Walter

          It was still a tragic waste of life.

          He tried to dumb it down so even a retard could understand it. Maybe you should try a website with fewer big words.

  7. think about it:
    he died protecting members of the mainstream media
    from the very monsters they helped to create
    what a waste…

  8. Chesa Boudin son of a duo from the Weather Underground who both went to prison for killing a security guard and two police officers during armed robbery. Maybe why there is no prosecution for theft under $1000, i.e. muggings, purse snatching, smash & grab, etc… Something about equity, I wonder?, they have reached Nervana (not the band).

  9. And sadly, once again, we have another casualty from a case of there being a final way to deal with such bullshit but very few if any people willing to accommodate what is necessary to accomplish that. Maybe some day that will all change for the better.

  10. Very sorry about Kevin Nishita, who was a brave man.

    As for the smash and grab savages, they were attacking a news crew. A freaking news crew. Who the hell cares about a news crew. Am I the only person who appreciates the irony of one bunch of lowlifes attacking another bunch of lowlifes during a “mostly peaceful” event?

    Kevin, you were a good man. You deserved a better ending.

    • “Who the hell cares about a news crew.”

      Thug robbers, Ralph.

      Do you have any idea how much that broadcast-quality camera gear costs?

      I’ll wager a guess the lot of it cost the station a few hundred thousand. That was a score too tempting to pass up… 🙁

      • It’s probably worth as much as a pile of polished turds when you try to sell it. Broadcast quality equipment broadcasts, after all. It certainly comes with telemetry, like Windows does. Easily traced, unless you pay big bucks to a hacker to disable all that crap. And, even then, when you turn it on, and actually broadcast anything, the law finds you anyway.

        The robbers couldn’t GIVE that stuff to me!

  11. In past decades, as with the San Francisco Earthquake, looters were shot on sight. It doesn’t take many so shot to send the message, and calm is quickly restored. But with leftists in charge, forget it, won’t happen. California is an open sewer, thanks to the left.

    • Once the Leftist Nazis are in control, you can bet that ant violent against them will be dealt with brutally. They need control and they need to hold it.

  12. “He was shot in the abdomen during an attempted robbery of KRON-TV’s camera equipment near downtown Oakland on Wednesday, police said.”

    Shot in the abdomen? Really? This sounds to me like this security guard wasn’t wearing any armor. This article doesn’t seem to elaborate on that. Now why would this NOT be part of the article and also NOT be part of his PPE?

    • Coverage by ballistic panels varies. Some leave the lower abdomen exposed to save weight and be less restrictive to movement.

      • I know these things don’t cover every inch of the body and don’t stop every bullet. But this appears to be something that just gets blown off as if it doesn’t matter. It does.

  13. The last time crime spiked like this was in the 70’s and 80’s when the liberals judges and politicians were pushing reform not punishment for criminals. The three strikes laws lowered the crime rates in many states, including California. These strong laws have been gutted like a pig in California and other blue states. It will take the people years to recognize that not arresting people and giving them slaps on the wrist causes crime. These Soros politicians believe that jails cause crimes and not putting people in jail will lower crime. Yest this is stupid thinking but they claim that some pointy headed academic researched this and it is science. This is the same crowd that worships Fauci and look what that got us.

  14. What the Heck was this guy thinking providing security to a TV news crew. We should be declaring open season on the gas lighting vermin.

  15. The Purge movies are seeming less fantastical every week.

    If something resembling those movies comes about, it won’t be some right-wing cabal that ushers it in, as the movies portray. It will be radical leftists who declare law-enforcement free days, where anything goes, to allow the “oppressed” to seek their own reparations and racial justice throw mass robbery and violence.

  16. A reward of $32,500 is being offered for information

    The sum total of the man’s lifes worth… Looks like a hate crime to me… Isn’t the prosecutor in SF being recalled? I cannot feel sorrow (or anything for that matter) for the people who elected this Clown to the office of Prosecutor, the guys parents were part of the Weather Underground imprisoned for their part in the 1981 armored car robbery and he was raised by Bill Ayres and Bernadette Dorne… He’s a SELF described Socialist and he worked for fukkin HUGO CHAVEZ!! yet the people of San Francisco thought he would be the best guy to serve justice as their D.A. So, how’s that working out for you SF? (oh yeah) I guess WAY too late is better than not at all…

  17. These security gigs are tough, but someone has to do it. Especially in Oakland. That someone, was Kevin Nishita.

    Folks like Kevin don’t have much control over their assignments. Neither do the field crews who get their marching orders. Especially junior staff. They’re ground units, NOT aerial or station teams. They’re grunts.

    At times, it’s live reporting, at times its not. They gather what they can and usually go where the SHIT is, and where CCW permits are not granted. Even if they were given CCWs, some companies just don’t allow it, and will just contract out a security company that assumes most of the liability.

    News companies hire retired or off-duty cops at a premium, at a time where most PDs everywhere, are suffering extremely low staffing.

    They have to possess CA BSIS Security Guard Cards and Gun Permits required by the State, to work as bodyguards for a contract company, but are allowed to carry concealed with a separate CCW, which is normally issued by their PD. Having access to folks like this is a rare commodity. In these rough times, there’s never enough supply to meet the demand.

    These folks are in the same industry as war correspondents in a battle zone. The harsh reality is that the battle zones are not abroad. They’re here. And it is what it is.

    Again, most folks won’t do these gigs, but some will, for a number of reasons. Some, have to do it. Regardless, they typically accept the risks associated with the job. And that takes guts.

    It’s a different story with news producers and editors that shape the material prior to airing, to push ratings or some BS agenda.

    But Kevin did what very few do, regardless of politics. Regardless of region. Regardless of the dangers.

    Some folks will criticize and cast judgment not knowing him or the situation. Not me.

    • It takes guts….no argument from me on that.

      But that doesn’t explain why he wasn’t wearing body armor. I don’t believe this article tells the whole story.

      • Probably didn’t, who knows for sure, why, or what type of firearm used. Maybe more info will be shared later. But a surprise ambush drive-by shooting is always a tough scenario when you’re exposed. Regardless, a low torso hit, just above the belt line and below the navel would not be covered. Even if the system has a groin protector, all it takes is an unlucky angle or a round that defeats the material. What is known, is that it was Kevin’s calling to be in this line of work. He wasn’t invincible. He was a sheepdog. No one else has to like it or believe in it.

  18. Not to diminish the mans life that was lost and how, but it takes a special kind of idiot to both be a cop, then retire and protect news crews.

    If you take the kings shillings, you do the kings biddings.

    This is not even close to a “live by die by” lifestyle. This is tyrants defending tyranny.

  19. No change will happen as long as there are people willing to take a bullet for the media that have pushed this crisis into being.

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  22. Well according to the Left. And some on TTAG. Private property is not worth defending. This TV crew should have no security. They should just give up their high value electronic equipment to the thieves. After all we are told “that is what insurance is for”.

  23. GOD HELP ME ,, LOOTERS , SHOOT ON SITE ,, GOOD IDEA , HOW WOULD THAT REALLY PLAY OUT . HOPE N PRAY INNOCENT PEOPLE DON’T GET SHOT ..

    WHAT WOULD I DO IF SHOPPING AND IT HAPPENED , WITH MY FAMILY THERE CAUGHT UP IN IT , WOUULD I SHOOT TO DEFEND MYSELF AND FAMILY ..

    MAYBE HAVE TO HAVE LIKE AT AIR PORT , CHECK IN CONTROL POINT , AT JEWELY STORES A START ,
    ALLOW SO MANY AT TIME INTO STORE ??

    CHECK IN POINT AT MALL NO TIRE TOOL OR HAMMERS ALLOWED …

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