tv Caught on Camera MSNBC March 15, 2015 2:00pm-3:01pm PDT
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here first. we're supposed to share this earth together. coming up -- [ bleep ] >> behind the lens and in extreme danger. at war. at work. >> just getting the pictures was all that was going through my head. >> at play. lives on the line. unforgettable images. >> somebody was trying to kill the president.
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>> bullets. [ bleep ] >> down! >> didn't know whether to stay down or get up and run. >> buried alive. photographers in the line of fire. >> i'm going to get killed [ bleep ]. ♪ >> "caught on camera: in harm's way." a news crew in iraq is hit by a bomb. >> that's the closest i've come to sort of i suppose dying. >> and their cameras are rolling the entire time. >> mate -- i think we've got a good tip -- >> april 6, 2003. three weeks after the invasion of iraq, american and coalition soldiers are battling saddam
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hussein's army on the ground and in the air. bbc photographer fred scott has been in iraq since the lead up to the war, recording nearly every second of his days with the bbc team covering the story. >> when you're in a situation where something could kick off immediately around you, you tend to be rolling the whole time. >> you've been miserable -- >> that morning they receive a tip that the town just south of the iraqi front line has fallen. >> we just set off on the hope that we could get in as americans, and particularly the kurds went and liberated it. we set off full of anticipation. and it was exciting. >> and extremely dangerous. >> be very careful about pushing it too far. it looks really, really quiet out there. but they can see you coming a long way off. >> just as we were questioning
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to ourselves whether we should go any further, massive convoy of american special forces and kurdish special forces and commanders drove past us at high speed. and we decided to follow them. >> the convoy pushes forward toward the front line. >> that tower there. >> suddenly we felt a lot safer. >> but not everybody feels that way. cameron abdurazad muhammad, the 25-year-old kurdish man working as an interpreter for the bbc, is worried about the journey. >> these jackets -- >> thank you. >> about three or four miles down the road, suddenly the convoys stop. you could see everyone get out and start inspecting an iraqi tank that had been blown inside of the road. >> scott sees an opportunity to get new footage of american f-14 jets flying overhead. >> i had never seen them banking and turning that low before. so i grabbed the camera, and i remember -- i think i asked tom to grab the tripod.
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>> i remember opening up the back of the land cruiser as they did that, getting a call on my phone. >> a kurdish military cameraman recording his colleagues preparing for battle captures producer tom giles pausing next to the car to answer the phone. >> it was my mother ringing to wish me happy birthday. in all the fuss, i had forgotten at that moment it was my birthday. i remember saying, mom, i can't talk now, there's a lot of front line activity going on. at the time, there was a swelling of air force jets overhead flying over. and i remember making a joke to her because she hadn't been a supporter of the war but holding the phone up and shouting, listen, mom, that's the sound of freedom. >> in a split second, that sound of freedom is shattered by the sound of war. [ shouting ]
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>> i just remember a white projectile coming over and past my left shoulder with a red nose. and next thing i know, i was just flat on my face, ears ringing. >> the entire convoy of kurdish and american soldiers and the bbc crew following them are hit. >> grabbed the camera. [ shouting ] >> tried to get to my feet. it wouldn't start. i reset the fuse, and it started rolling. >> with his own blood clouding the lens of his camera, scott documents the scene around him. >> bodies are slumped against the horns of the cars. and car alarms are going off. [ shouting ] >> and of course screaming. it was all kind of dull and compressed because i couldn't really hear very much at all. >> keep your head down --
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>> all these rpgs were exploding everywhere. gunfire was going off, so you didn't know whether to get up and help or stay down or whether to run or anything. >> bbc's editor operates a second camera as he, scott, and bbc correspondent john simpson try to get to safety. >> how's my eye? >> you're all bloody. >> i remember waiting for the next explosion to come in. at that moment, i realized my mother was still on the phone. that she had heard everything going on or whatever she could hear. people shouting and banging. and i remember just saying, sorry, mom, i -- i can't talk right now. the americans have just bombed us. >> bbc security adviser craig somers is separated from the rest of the team in the blast. >> i was thinking, oh, my god, they're dead. they're dead. you know, it landed sort of -- i don't know, ten, 15 yards from us.
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it must have absolutely obliterated them. >> john? >> then all of a sudden, up they popped from behind a bank. >> you okay? >> yes, we're fine, mate. >> the relief was like incredible because they were there. but the person i didn't see was cameron. >> cameron, the bbc's interpreter, is standing further from the team when the bomb hits. >> there's cameron lying down on the grass. >> he'd been thrown, and the americans and kurds had taken him to a knoll where they piled up other people who were either dead or didn't look like they were going to make it. and they were working very hard to save his life. >> nothing i can do -- >> still, scott and petrovich don't turn off their cameras even as special forces tend to scott's wounds. >> i don't think it's serious. there's some other guys -- >> we're going to go up in a second. >> scott's camera, alongside him
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in the grass, captures audio as giles tries to comfort comran. >> cameron -- >> he was barely conscious. you're going to be fine. >> it was one of those times you feel you have to be there and tell someone they're going to be okay. >> he's put in a special forces vehicle and driven to a nearby hospital. his wounds are too grave, and he dies only hours after the attack. >> cameron was a really, really bright, smart, funny, intelligent guy. he was young, and he was idealistic. he loved the idea of journalism. he loved the idea of the bbc. there's not that many weeks go by where i don't think about cameron and what happened to him. >> 44 people are injured, and 19 killed in what the u.s. military says is a tragic case of friendly fire. an investigation determines that a soldier on the ground called in their location as a reference point for the bombing of iraqi forces.
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but in the chaos of war, the bombers accidentally hit where he was standing with the american and kurdish forces and the bbc news crew. >> i hadn't realized that fred had switched his camera on pretty much immediately after the bomb had landed. i didn't actually realize how much he had recorded of the incident. >> when something like that does happen, you need to do your job. otherwise, the stark raving futility of having put yourself in a place like that to start with is just -- doesn't bear thinking about. [ shouting ] >> it's very important that journalists, television people, producer, cameramen do go to these places and record these things. the easiest thing in the world is to try and censor what these are like. >> oh, my god. coming up -- [ gunshots ] >> somebody was trying to kill the president of the united
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shots fired, and a terrifying moment in history is caught on camera. >> i was that close that i got blood going across the front of my lens. >> the president had gone to -- >> march 30th, 1981. president ronald reagan is speaking at a union convention at the hilton hotel in washington, d.c. nbc photographer, shelly feelman, is outside covering the event. >> i was standing just about where i am now. that's the wall of the hilton hotel. >> feelman has been doing presidential coverage since he was unexpectedly thrown into it working for nbc news, 1963.
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>> my first day on the job, it was supposed to be really quiet, easy. and there was a veteran crew, and we were sitting in a restaurant. and they said, well, you know, it's an easy day today. we'll probably be going home early. and then they turned on the tv, and they announced that president kennedy was assassinated. the next thing i knew, i was on a plane heading for dallas. >> two days later while covering lee harvey oswald's jail transfer in dallas, feelman watches as jack ruby shoots and kills oswald. >> that was my initiation into into the news business. >> 17 years later, feelman is again expecting an easy day. >> i said, well, we're going to get the president coming out. and it's going to be a piece of cake. i -- i would never use that term again, piece of cake. >> feelman and abc news photographer hank brown set up their cameras at the rope line outside the hilton.
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a hotel photographer snaps this picture showing feelman next to the wall and brown to feelman's left. neither photographer knows the blonde man standing behind feelman's right shoulder or what he is about to do. moments after the photograph is taken, the president exits the hilton. >> mr. president -- mr. president? >> the president turns, puts his hands out, and that's when i heard pop, pop, pop, pop. [ gunshots ] >> god! >> brown and feelman don't know if anyone has been injured or worse, but they have one goal -- keep their cameras focused on the president. >> i realized that the picture that i was shooting was history. somebody was trying to kill the president of the united states. >> a third camera covering the scene captures feelman and brown in the middle of the chaos as the secret service rush the president into the car. >> get down!
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>> it seemed like it was a lifetime, but everything was happening in the second. the agents were running toward me. the agent had his gun out. >> in the split second before the gunman is tackled, feelman captures a terrifying image. >> as soon as the president was pushed into the car, i turned, aimed the camera down -- >> right there. the lower right corner of feelman's footage, is the shooter and his gun pointed direct iii president's motorcade. >> god! oh! >> one of the agents hit him first, and then everybody piled on top of him. they grabbed him -- [ shouting ] >> they took him to the first police car which was over here somewhere. [ sirens ] >> and the door was locked. [ sirens ] >> so they dragged him to another car. >> get out of the way! >> they finally got him in. they zoomed off.
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>> back to the white house. back to the white house. rawhide is okay. >> at first it's believed that the president is unharmed. but while driving back to the white house, it's discovered that he is shot. >> we want to go to the emergency room of george washington. >> one of the bullets ricochets off reagan's car and hits the president in the chest as he is pushed into the vehicle. the bullet is just one inch from his heart. he's rushed to the hospital and operated on. white house press secretary james brady, secret service agent tim mccarthy, and d.c. police officer thomas de la hante are wounded and still outside the hotel. >> to see mccarthy, de la hante and brady stretched out like that was very painful. i was crying when i was covering the scene. >> brady exited the building with the president and stepped into the line of fire as the shooting began.
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he was shot in the head by the very first bullet fired. >> i had my eye glued to a two-inch black and white screen, it's like watching a horror movie in a small version. >> but their job is to be the eyes and ears for a nation eager for information. >> i'm competitive, i'm a newsman. shock's over, shooting's over, do your job. >> this is an nbc news special report. >> we have just received videotape of the circumstances outside the washington hilton hotel. there's president reagan waving. >> while the footage of the shooting airs on televisions across the country, feelman and brown continue working at the scene. they're also eyewitnesses to history. >> next thing you know, cameras are pointed at me. asking me, can you explain what happened. >> how far was he from the president?
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>> he was about ten feet from the president. he was in the press line. he penetrated the press line. the press covering the shooting now becomes who the press are now taking pictures of. >> though the photographers didn't know until later, the man captured in the picture behind feelman is john hinckley jr., later identified as the shooter. and his proximity to feelman during the assassination attempt may have saved hinckley's life. >> the secret service agent who was here was going to shoot him. and i stepped in front of him, and he told me that later that i saved hinckley's life. and i looked at him and says, well, thanks for being a little slow in thinking. >> hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity and placed in a psychiatric hospital. >> looking a bit pale and somewhat thinner -- >> the president suffers massive blood loss, but his surgery is successful, and he is back in the oval office only 12 days
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after the shooting. secret service agent mccarthy also recovers from his wounds. officers de le hante suffers permanent nerve damage to his left arm. and press secretary brady is partially paralyzed and sustains a brain injury. brady dedicates his life to fight gun violence. he goes on to pass the brady law, requiring federal background checks on gun buyers. both feelman and brown are awarded emmys for the field coverage they recorded that day. feelman's footage with the unforgettable image of hinckley's gun wins. >> i never had time to be afraid for my own life. i never had time to even think about it. i knew what i had to do. it's my job. i was a newsreel cameraman. it was up to me to bring it home. coming up -- [ bleep ] >> no, sir, i'm not going to make it out of this one. you tell my son i love him.
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>> a skier is caught in a fast-moving avalanche and buried alive. and a camera on his helmet records every second. >> to hear yourself in a situation where you're almost dying, it's really strange. >> february 28th, 2011. christopher carlson and some friends are skiing in the swiss alps. >> it was a beautiful day with blue skies and like half a meter of new, fresh powder. and we were skiing all day and having like one of my best ski days ever. >> instead of going down prepared slopes, the skiers are blazing new trails down untouched mountainsides.
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>> you take on a bit more risk, but the powdered snow coming up your face, you're screaming, and it's great. >> the skiers are heading home when they can't resist one last run. the first three go down the mountain and are waiting below for carlson. he turns on a go-pro camera attached to his helmet and skis down after them. but 25 seconds after he starts, the snow around him begins to give way under his feet. >> it was like being in a washing machine. i couldn't decide what was up and down. >> his friends below watch as he struggles to keep it together. >> like fell 50 meters. and then he stops. so we think like, oh, hope he's okay. nothing -- nothing broke or something. then the whole face just go. >> i just felt the snow like taking my feet away, and i started tumbling down the
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mountain and thinking, i have to get up. i have to do something. >> but there's nothing he can do. he's engulfed as the camera keeps recording. he's buried beneath the snow. >> first few seconds was like i need to keep my hands in front of my mouth because that's what i read before. and i need to get some air and not get snow down to my lungs. >> carlson is able to move one hand, just enough to clear out the snow in front of his mouth. >> the rest of the body was like stuck in concrete. i couldn't move. i could barely breathe. >> his camera continues recording as he lays moaning and motionless in the snow. [ moans ] >> all these thoughts come, like are my friends also buried, is anyone still on the surface who can search for me or us.
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>> the avalanche stops before it reaches his friends, and they watch in horror as carlson vanishes beneath it. they have no idea if carlson is dead or alive, but they know if they're going to rescue him, every second is precious. >> have 10 or 15 more minutes before the oxygen would have been completely out. so i'm not sure i would have lasted for the ski patrol to come. >> his friend, robin iliason is closest when carlson disappears. >> i was closest and started searching with my transceiver. >> the device sends and receives a digital signal to give their location. >> quite immediately i got a signal. >> carlson's transceiver, buried
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with him, alerts his friends to the area where he is trapped. but the clock is ticking. >> i'm starting to get a really heavy breathing. and then i realized i don't have that much time left, so then all these emotions started coming. [ screaming ] >> and that's when i start screaming because now i know that i don't have that much time. [ screams ] >> but he's buried so deep, his screams don't help. [ screams ] >> we see on the film that he's screaming and stuff. we couldn't hear anything. >> his friends dig furiously around the positive signal. and five minutes after he's buried, the snow in front of carlson's camera is pushed aside. >> yeah, okay.
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>> two seconds before my face got cleared of the snow, that was the first time i -- i heard them or realized that i'm going to be saved. i'm okay. >> please. i want to get up. >> okay. >> it was a total relief. i've never felt that feeling before, of course. when i got up, one of my first questions was to anton, is it still filming. because i realized then that this should be really interesting to watch. >> but carlson isn't out of danger yet. he is stiff from the cold, so it's difficult to determine the extent of any injuries. and in order to get to a hospital, he has to first get down from the mountain. within minutes of being dug out, the ski patrol arrives on the scene. carlson's friends take his camera and continue recording as the ski patrol begins his elaborate rescue.
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>> no helicopter -- >> no, no helicopter. >> i keep saying that i'm fine, i'm good. i can ski down because i didn't have the right insurance for helicopter rescue. but my friends talked me into have to go to hospital and get a proper examination. >> the mountain is too steep for the helicopter to land, so carlson has to be put in a sling that swings beneath the helicopter as it flies to flat ground. >> i take the camera myself and just film that because i thought it was really cool. >> carlson goes from buried deep beneath the snow to flying high above it. >> i wasn't injured at all. this is probably the weirdest situation that i am ever going to be in. first almost dying, then surviving, and hanging underneath the helicopter like 15 minutes ago i was skiing the most beautiful run in my life. coming up -- >> do not move. please help me. i just knew i had only so much
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memory space left, and i wanted to get as much on it their as i could without, you know, dying. [ gunshots ] >> they just killed him! oh, jesus. >> when "caught on camera: in harm's way" returns. introducing... a pm pain reliever that dares to work all the way until... the am. new aleve pm the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour strength of aleve.
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i'm richard lui with a developing story. a suspect is in custody of the shooting of two police officers in ferguson, missouri. 20-year-old jeffrey williams is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and three lesser charges. he's being held on $300,000 bond. williams said he was involved in an alteration at thursday's protest and shooting at someone else and not was toers. williams previously was arrested for having received stolen property. now back to "caught on camera."
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a u.s. contractor in iraq trapped in a deadly ambush. >> i'm taking fire, come back. >> his camera catches every terrifying second of the attack. >> i'm fixing to get killed [ bleep ]. >> i didn't ever dream that i would see one of my sons going through something like that. >> go around, go around. >> september 20th, 2005. preston wheeler, a truck driver for halliburton n sidiary kbr is working in iraq. >> it's a job. it's dangerous. we went to the kill zones all day every day. >> on this september day, wheeler is scheduled to carry supplies from the camp to operating base mckenzie, 45 minutes away. >> i said, "preston, you've not
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made any pictures or took a video or anything in a while. why don't you do that again." >> so using a new camera that his mother sends him, wheeler begins documenting his day. >> that's new camera? >> yeah. i wanted my family to see the places that they'll never get to see in their life. >> he gets into truck five and joins a caravan of 12 trucks and their military escorts. with one hand holding his camera and the other holding the wheel, he hits the road. >> the town was dangerous. a lot of ambushes there. a lot of people shot. >> the convoy becomes a target almost immediately. >> knocked the hell out of us. told y'all we were going to get rocks. >> is everybody all right up there? >> they're in grave danger, and
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it's because the lead military escort took a wrong turn. >> evidently wrong. >> make a right instead of a left. we don't know it, but we're all going a dead end. >> unsure of what lies ahead, wheeler begins narrating the tape for his family. >> we made a wrong turn. >> when the convoy hits the tigress river, they have two options -- stop and wait for reinforcements or drive back through the barrage of rocks. >> we're going back through hell. want you all to know that. we head back, and i'm worried to death. there's nobody on the street, i know it's not going to be good. that's when i say, we're fixing to go through hell again. this is going to be one good video right here, boy. >> on the way back, the attackers put down their rocks and pick up their guns. [ gunshots ] [ bleep ] >> all of a sudden a bullet hole appears in my windshield above my head.
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an explosion on the left-hand side goes off. i've got it on video, by god. >> only three trucks behind wheeler. the driver in truck eight is shot. >> eight, going down -- >> i knew it was going bad then. >> get out of the kill zone. >> wheeler's camera captures the growing panic. >> jesus christ, help us all, lord. i got six and seven behind me. they're screaming at me to go, go, go, go. you know, everybody's on the radios hollering, wanting to get out of there. and i'm scared to death just like everybody else is. [ gunfire ] >> the drivers try to keep moving and get out of harm's way, but shots fired at truck one derail the entire convoy. >> truck down. truck one's down. >> and his truck turns over. now everybody's stopped. and i almost rear-ended the humvee in front of me. >> but he never lets the camera go. >> truck five is stalled out.
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>> all the brakes was locked up on it. i knew i was in trouble. >> go, go -- >> i am -- truck five cannot move. please help me. >> wheeler is trapped inside his truck with no weapon to defend himself. [ gunfire ] >> and nowhere to run. >> move out of the way if you can. >> i cannot move. >> truck five, move to the right. >> it would have been a death sentence for me to get out of that truck. fire everywhere. i'm taking fire. 10-4, come back. i could hear bullets hitting the truck, back, front -- i'm fixing to get killed, [ bleep ]. >> hiding inside, wheeler listens helplessly while his colleagues around him also plead for help. [ gunfire ] >> truck three is down. >> we're calling for the army to come help us. everybody's begging for help. >> truck three -- >> still, he doesn't stop recording. >> truck five is down and cannot move. i'm getting shot.
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sir -- i have no gun back here. and truck five, i am by myself. i just knew i had only so much memory space left, and i wanted to get as much on there as i could without, you know, dying and my camera dying. >> we've got to go. come on now. >> through his front windshield, wheeler witnesses his friend, sasha grenner case, getting out of his truck. at first he thinks it's good news. >> i'm thinking, thank god somebody's here to help us. somebody's going to help us. >> but these people are not here to help. >> you're damn right i'm scared. >> wheeler watches in horror as his friend is executed. [ gunshot ] >> they just killed him! oh, jesus. they just take their gun and shoot him in the head. and i just flipped -- i flipped out then. they just killed him. oh, my god. [ gunfire ] >> people can watch it and may not understand, you know. you had to be there.
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you know, camera didn't get it all. my eyes did. >> for the first time since the trip began, wheeler turns off his camera. >> right after i turned my camera off, that's when i get shot. it destroys my bone. i was bleeding. i was going to die if i didn't stop it. >> as wheeler lies bleeding in the back of his truck, a united states drone flying overhead records the violence taking place around him. >> they're running around sasha's body. they're kicking him and throwing big rocks at him. taking some of his stuff off his body. >> inside his truck, wheeler sends what he thinks will be his final radio dispatch. >> no, sir, i'm not going to make it out of this one. i said, you tell my son i love him. >> about 1:00 in the night, i woke up immediately, and there was just something told me to pray for preston. that he needed help. >> i'm shot. you know, i'm bleeding to death here, and i've got four men
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walking to my truck right now. they're fixing to kill me. and then helicopters show up. >> as the sound of the u.s. helicopters flying overhead fills the air, the attackers flee. and wheeler, convinced he is seconds from deaths, is put in a military humvee and taken to a helicopter to be transported back to camp anaconda. less than 20 minutes after he is shot, he turns his camera back on for one final message. >> it's me. i'm shot. >> wheeler is taken to the hospital at camp anaconda and treated for his bullet wounds. >> preston called me and told me that he had been shot. and i just went all to pieces. >> from my elbow to my shoulder, my bone's gone. bullet, you know, destroyed my bone -- like busted it up with a hammer.
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>> three of his friends and colleagues are killed. >> it was amazing to me that i made it out. i couldn't believe that i was here. i still wish it had been me to die instead of the rest of them. i figure, you know, one family in mourning is better than three. truck five cannot move. please help me! i'm not scared to die no more. i faced it. if i had to experience it again, i would have a better camera. and it would have been running the whole time. that way the whole truth could be known without me having to tell it. coming up -- a cameraman in the cross hairs. and later -- >> people don't walk away from. >> when "caught on camera: in harm's way" returns.
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>> ah! [ screams ] [ chanting ] >> april 29th, 2012. cairo, egypt. a city in turmoil after a revolution. supporters of former islamist presidential candidate stage a sit-in near the ministry of defense three weeks after he is disqualified by the presidential electoral commission. [ chanting ] >> the reason -- reports his mother held dual citizenship with the united states before her death. according to egyptian law, this means he can't run for president. abu ismail denies the claim. what starts as a display of support for abu ismail turns into a protest against military rule in egypt.
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>> translator: some revolutionaries decided to join even though they disagreed with the supporters of abu ismail. the idea was to support the transfer of power from a military authority to a civilian authority. >> accountant and freelance photographer shahab aldean is there recording for a personal documentary and captures the situation spiraling rapidly out of control. >> translator: there are many cameramen afraid of getting too close to the assignment or the events that are violent. i like to get in and shoot the very important things that maybe others might not be able to shoot. >> people begin attacking the protesters. and now both sides are fully engaged, throwing rocks and molotov cocktails at one another. abdel razah records through the night as the violence escalates. [ gunfire ]
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>> he sees people shot with small pellets used for hunting birds. >> i film people who were injured by birdshot in their face, in their bodies. and most of them were covered in blood. >> it's too dark to capture the shooters on camera. he stays until daylight so that he can identify the people who were shooting at the protesters. it's a risky decision. he scans through the crowd searching for the shooters. as soon as the camera focuses in on a man with a gun, the gunman raises the weapon and aim it directly at him. [ screams ] >> translator: i felt the birdshot hit my eye, and i remember still trying to hold on to the camera and trying to hold
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myself together. >> his friend takes the camera and continues to record as he is carried to doctors helping the wounded in the street nearby. >> even as i was injured on the ground, all my thinking was about the camera. i knew that i had shot some very important material. i knew that i had footage of the person that shot me so i was really worried the material would disappear. >> his body is riddled with birdshot including his hand, his forehead, and his eye. but despite his injuries, he's determined to get his camera back from his friend and continue recording the protest. >> i got up from the field hospital and returned to him even though there was still a lot of blood on my face. all they had done was wiped some of it away. i went to him in the middle of the clashes and took the camera from him and told him, "no, i want to keep it. give it to me." i continued shooting, but i was worried that the next shot i would die and then the material could be gone. >> abdull is determined to share
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his footage with the world. >> translator: i continued for about an hour or hour and a half, and then i left and uploaded the material on youtube so everyone could see and know who was wrong and who was right. >> viewers of his video identify the shooter. but it isn't until after the presidential election, a month later, that abdull files a report with the prosecutor's office. no charges have ever been filed. although the birdshot remains in his eye, abdull can see. since the shooting he quit his accountant job and works full time as a reporter and photographer for on tv, an egyptian news channel where he continues to capture egypt's violence. [ screams ] coming up -- a sports photographer gets too close to the action. >> whoa!
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a motorcycle and rider skip dangerously off a racetrack and fly straight at a photographer. >> could have died. i didn't see the people -- people caught up don't walk away from. >> may 6th, 2012. >> the starting grid -- >> the mce british superbike championship in england. the mce is an intense and competitive annual race where bikers speed around the track up to 200 miles per hour. hugging curbs and sometimes smashing into barriers. in this high-speed world, it only takes a split second for the riders to go from facing the finish line to facing death. >> if you're not crashing, you're not trying hard enough.
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>> but their lives are not the only ones on the line. >> at the time, you think, oh, this is a great shot. you sort of lose the reality of a person here with a bike heading toward me. >> david smith is one of the many photographers spread out around the track to record every second of the fast-paced excitement. >> it was actually a quite bright day. i decided to put my coat over the viewfinder so that i could block out the sun. >> biker john kirkam and the rest of the riders get into position. >> the race begins -- >> a good start -- >> john kirkham -- >> i passed a few people. >> in the lead, kirkam second. >> i was sort of dropping back. something wasn't quite right. >> cameras capture kirkham now in forth place struggling. >> had a big moment, then -- >> i couldn't work out what the problem was. >> the bikers are on their ninth lap around the track when kirkham loses control.
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>> from my position, i could see them coming under a bridge just around a bend. >> oh! >> saw one bike slide and starts heading what i thought was to my left-hand side. >> it was kirkham -- >> he flies across the track and slid into the grass. >> i thought, this isn't too bad, i'm not going to hit the barrier, i'm going to slide across the grass and stop. i didn't miss the barrier. >> kirkham is knocked unconscious, but his 363-pound bike continues toward smith and his camera. >> there was no fear time of the actual crash. -- no fear at the time of the actual crash. it all happened so fast. >> the bike moved so quickly and with such force, it's hard to tell how smith survives the impact. a closer look at the video shot from another camera across the track reveals what happens in the critical second of the accident. >> the bike had so much energy it hit the barrier and went up into the air did a few
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somersaults. >> the jacket draped over smith's camera is blocking his peripheral vision, so he doesn't realize how much danger he's in. >> i'm still on the camera when the bike hit the crash bar area. just getting the pictures was all that was going through my head. >> while the crowd watches in horror, he continues recording. >> it was the explosion of the foam and the barrier that made me react. >> with less than a second to spare, smith ducks out of the way, and the bike ms. him. but while paramedics run toward the scene, smith, untouched, races back toward his camera. >> my instinct was to get back to the camera because there were other people watching the pictures. and i needed them to know that everything was okay. >> is everybody okay? >> i got under my coat and put the headphones on. all i could hear was -- noises in the outside orchestra. what's happened, is he okay, is
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he okay. i couldn't talk to anyone at the time so i just of nodding the camera, yeah, i'm okay. >> thankfully, it seems the cameraman sensible ran, but he kept on filming -- >> smith records paramedics attending to an unconscious kirkham on the ground. >> the deceleration from 140 miles per hour to zero basically all your organs carry on going, and my brain, bridged the side of my skull. it bruised my brain. >> it's not until kirkham sees the video of the incident that he realizes the danger his accident placed smith in, as well. >> thank goodness there were no spectators there. >> he was brave to stay there that long. everybody said it was brave and lucky people. i think he was braver than me. >> the actual impact and the bike going over me and me getting out of the way is down to split seconds. the fear didn't come until afterwards and that night when you think, kriky, that was close. >> that's a quick one.
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hello! >> viral videos, millions can't stop watching. >> this is everything i wanted to do in my life. >> i can't have every cat, but i just want to, i want to. >> it cannot be called anything other than a spectacular meltdown. >> you may have seen a few yourself. >> hey, reverend, let's get this thing going, all right? >> anything can happen. >> oh, my god. i am so sorry. i am -- >> but do our eyes deceive us? >> people wonder, is it real, is it not real?
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