http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2000/4/26/164139
...Wednesday April 26, 2000; 5:35 PM EDT
NBC Cameraman Hospitalized After Elian Raid Beating
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Freelance NBC cameraman Tony Zumbado has been hospitalized as a result
of injuries sustained
when agents for the INS and Border Patrol beat him and his soundman,
Gustavo Moller, as they
were trying to film the Clinton administration's gunpoint abduction of
six-year-old Elian Gonzalez.
Zumbado was the designated pool reporter at the scene, whose video
footage from inside the
Gonzalez home was to be fed to all major broadcast and cable television
networks.
But the beating by gun-toting federal agents left both Zumbado and
Moller incapacitated for the
duration of the three minute raid, depriving television audiences
around the world of live video
coverage of the dramatic confrontation.
Zumbado's NBC colleague, reporter Kerry Sanders, was outside the
Gonzalez house in the
pre-dawn hours on Saturday and talked to Zumbado and Moller seconds
after the raid ended.
In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, Sanders said that Zumbado
began to experience
back pain over the weekend as a result of the attack. "I just got off
the phone with Tony. Now he
can't move really all that well." The NBC cameraman was removed from
his home on a stretcher
early Wednesday and was admitted to a Miami area hospital for an MRI
and other tests to
determine the extent of his injuries.
Sanders gave NewsMax.com this account of the attack that led to
Zumbado's hospitalization:
"Tony and Gustavo had parked themselves for five months now at the
corner of the house just
outside the house. The family had said all along that they would invite
cameras into the house to
document what happened. As this is all going down, one of our cameramen
by the name of Roger
Prehoda was coming in at around 5 o'clock.
"He was a little bit late that morning. And so he's walking down the
street and he sees the vans
coming. And he's thinking, 'Oh my God, this is it.'
"So he grabs his two-way radio and he says, 'It's going down, it's
going down.' That gets
transmitted to Gustavo and Tony before the vans even come down the
street. So they jump the
fence, get into the yard and they race to the door. It's a race to beat
the agents bacause he knows
they're going to be there any second."
Unknown to the NBC camera crew, INS agents had already entered the
house by the back door,
Sanders said, and were inside when Zumbado opened the front door.
"As Tony makes it to the door, somebody inside the house grabs him and
pulls him in and slams
the door. Gustavo doesn't make it in. Gustavo's outside. He said one of
the agents takes the butt
of his gun and bangs it right into his forehead, causing him to fall
down. I saw the blood on his
forehead.
"Tony is in the house but the plan all along had been that the camera
was a pool camera and it
was a live pool camera. So he's got cables that are dangling off the
back of his camera that are
now going into the house, slammed in the door. This is television
equipment, this isn't your little
home video camera.
"As the door reopens, which is only a matter of seconds, somebody is
grabbing the cables,
yanking them back. Tony's got the camera on his shoulder. They yank it
back and pull it down.
One of the cables gets pulled out of the camera, which is the audio
cable. The video cable hangs
on to the camera but it sends Tony falling backwards.
"At that point, somebody smacks him in the stomach. Tony is hit in the
stomach and goes down.
And then the agent puts his foot on Tony's back and puts a gun to him
and says, 'Don't move or I'll
shoot.'
"So, the camera is out of commission. Tony is now down and out of
commission. Tony tells me
that as he looks up around, he sees the family there and he sees these
little red dots on Lazaro's
forehead, on Marisleysis forehead. Which of course are the laser sights
from the machine guns.
He sees them all trained there and then he hears what's going on in the
back room. But he's not in
that back bedroom because he's now down on the floor with a foot in his
back and a gun to his
head saying 'Don't move.'
Sanders said that Zumbado has family members with law enforcement
background and has
actually undergone police SWAT training himself. As a former cameraman
for the Fox TV show
"Cops," Zumbado had filmed hundreds of police raids prior to the
Clinton administration's Saturday
attack.
In fact, said Sanders, NBC selected Zumbado for the key job of
videotaping Elian's abduction
because of his filmwork on "Cops," "He knows exactly what these people
are supposed to do
when they go in because he's trained to do it."
The attack on Elian's home, however, was different, Zumbado admitted to
Sanders.
"'Kerry,' he told me, 'it's amazing how humbling it is. You think you
know how it goes down. I've
been through the door with 'Cops' plenty of times on raids. I know what
it is. But it's such a
different feeling when you're on the receiving end.'"
...Wednesday April 26, 2000; 5:35 PM EDT
NBC Cameraman Hospitalized After Elian Raid Beating
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Freelance NBC cameraman Tony Zumbado has been hospitalized as a result
of injuries sustained
when agents for the INS and Border Patrol beat him and his soundman,
Gustavo Moller, as they
were trying to film the Clinton administration's gunpoint abduction of
six-year-old Elian Gonzalez.
Zumbado was the designated pool reporter at the scene, whose video
footage from inside the
Gonzalez home was to be fed to all major broadcast and cable television
networks.
But the beating by gun-toting federal agents left both Zumbado and
Moller incapacitated for the
duration of the three minute raid, depriving television audiences
around the world of live video
coverage of the dramatic confrontation.
Zumbado's NBC colleague, reporter Kerry Sanders, was outside the
Gonzalez house in the
pre-dawn hours on Saturday and talked to Zumbado and Moller seconds
after the raid ended.
In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, Sanders said that Zumbado
began to experience
back pain over the weekend as a result of the attack. "I just got off
the phone with Tony. Now he
can't move really all that well." The NBC cameraman was removed from
his home on a stretcher
early Wednesday and was admitted to a Miami area hospital for an MRI
and other tests to
determine the extent of his injuries.
Sanders gave NewsMax.com this account of the attack that led to
Zumbado's hospitalization:
"Tony and Gustavo had parked themselves for five months now at the
corner of the house just
outside the house. The family had said all along that they would invite
cameras into the house to
document what happened. As this is all going down, one of our cameramen
by the name of Roger
Prehoda was coming in at around 5 o'clock.
"He was a little bit late that morning. And so he's walking down the
street and he sees the vans
coming. And he's thinking, 'Oh my God, this is it.'
"So he grabs his two-way radio and he says, 'It's going down, it's
going down.' That gets
transmitted to Gustavo and Tony before the vans even come down the
street. So they jump the
fence, get into the yard and they race to the door. It's a race to beat
the agents bacause he knows
they're going to be there any second."
Unknown to the NBC camera crew, INS agents had already entered the
house by the back door,
Sanders said, and were inside when Zumbado opened the front door.
"As Tony makes it to the door, somebody inside the house grabs him and
pulls him in and slams
the door. Gustavo doesn't make it in. Gustavo's outside. He said one of
the agents takes the butt
of his gun and bangs it right into his forehead, causing him to fall
down. I saw the blood on his
forehead.
"Tony is in the house but the plan all along had been that the camera
was a pool camera and it
was a live pool camera. So he's got cables that are dangling off the
back of his camera that are
now going into the house, slammed in the door. This is television
equipment, this isn't your little
home video camera.
"As the door reopens, which is only a matter of seconds, somebody is
grabbing the cables,
yanking them back. Tony's got the camera on his shoulder. They yank it
back and pull it down.
One of the cables gets pulled out of the camera, which is the audio
cable. The video cable hangs
on to the camera but it sends Tony falling backwards.
"At that point, somebody smacks him in the stomach. Tony is hit in the
stomach and goes down.
And then the agent puts his foot on Tony's back and puts a gun to him
and says, 'Don't move or I'll
shoot.'
"So, the camera is out of commission. Tony is now down and out of
commission. Tony tells me
that as he looks up around, he sees the family there and he sees these
little red dots on Lazaro's
forehead, on Marisleysis forehead. Which of course are the laser sights
from the machine guns.
He sees them all trained there and then he hears what's going on in the
back room. But he's not in
that back bedroom because he's now down on the floor with a foot in his
back and a gun to his
head saying 'Don't move.'
Sanders said that Zumbado has family members with law enforcement
background and has
actually undergone police SWAT training himself. As a former cameraman
for the Fox TV show
"Cops," Zumbado had filmed hundreds of police raids prior to the
Clinton administration's Saturday
attack.
In fact, said Sanders, NBC selected Zumbado for the key job of
videotaping Elian's abduction
because of his filmwork on "Cops," "He knows exactly what these people
are supposed to do
when they go in because he's trained to do it."
The attack on Elian's home, however, was different, Zumbado admitted to
Sanders.
"'Kerry,' he told me, 'it's amazing how humbling it is. You think you
know how it goes down. I've
been through the door with 'Cops' plenty of times on raids. I know what
it is. But it's such a
different feeling when you're on the receiving end.'"