By: Teresa Mull

A private, armed security guard defended the NBC Bay Area news crew from a group of armed robbers while the crew was reporting on Oakland’s surge in violence.

“The attack took place outside City Hall on Monday just hours after the police chief blasted his city’s decision to defund its police department by $18.5million despite a 90 per cent increase in murders,” reports the Daily Mail.

According to reports, two armed robbers confronted the news crew and tried to steal their camera. An armed security guard the news station had hired brandished his gun and caused the would-be robbers to flee.

Oakland’s Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong has spoken out against the city’s growing crime problem and lack of funding.

“Our shootings are up over 70 percent this year,” Armstrong said. “Our robberies are up 11 percent this year – 1300 robberies in this city already this year. Our car-jackings are up nearly 88 percent so we see clearly that crime is out of control in the City of Oakland, and our response was for less police resources. But when city council members – the majority of them that voted to defund this police department – that additional 17 million that was reduced from the police department’s budget will have an impact.”

Teresa Mull ([email protected]) is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.