By Rachel Swan : sfchronicle – excerpt (audio coming soon)
Czech TV journalist Bohumil Vostal was capturing what he thought would be a majestic shot — San Francisco’s iconic City Lights bookstore, steeped in the gathering dusk — when three masked assailants approached with guns pointed.
“They were heading at my camera man, aiming a gun at his stomach, and one at my head,” Vostal said in an interview Monday, growing breathless as he recounted the harrowing incident at 5 p.m. the night before.
Vostal is among hundreds of international correspondents who flocked to San Francisco this week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, an event drawing some of the world’s most powerful leaders to downtown and Nob Hill. Like many reporters, Vostal had seen news coverage of unruly shoplifters, open-air drug markets and commercial vacancies, but he hoped to portray the city in a more positive light.
But after three armed perpetrators confronted Vostal and his cameraman on Columbus Avenue, stealing more than $18,000 worth of equipment and precious footage from a day of wandering the city, the Czech newsman said he felt shattered.
“I’m one of those many people who used to read Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road,’ and I was so much looking forward to visit your city,” he said, recalling how magical the day of filming had been…(more)