GRAPHIC: Carjacker Shoots Self On Live Television At End Of High-Speed Chase
WARNING: THE BELOW VIDEO IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC. VIEWER DISCRETION STRONGLY ADVISED.
A long car chase through rural Arizona just aired on Fox News and ended tragically with the suicide of the carjacker.
Fox had been following the pursuit since a little before 3:00 p.m. ET, as the red vehicle weaved at speeds of 110 mph on an Arizona freeway and then on a dirt road west of Tonopah.
After pulling over in the middle of nowhere, the criminal slowly emerged from the car and looked disoriented. Smith continuously noted that he was “nervous” and had a bad feeling about what was happening, and he did not see this ending well.
The man then left his vehicle and ran out into an open field before pulling out a gun and shooting himself on live television. Host Shepard Smith yelled at the show’s crew to “get off” the video immediately, before the network cut to commercial break.
Watch below, via Fox News (WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED)
And after the commercial break, Smith gave a heartfelt apology for accidentally airing the man’s suicide. He explained that Fox failed to cut away in time, even with the five-second feed delay. For that, he said, “we really messed up… and we are all very sorry.”
“That didn’t belong on TV,” he added. “We took every precaution we know how to take to keep that from being on TV. And I personally apologize to you that that happened.”
Watch that below, via Fox News:
UPDATE: Fox News executive VP Michael Clemente issued the following statement:
We took every precaution to avoid any such live incident by putting the helicopter pictures on a five second delay. Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severe human error and we apologize for what viewers ultimately saw on the screen.
UPDATE #2: Fox News Watch addressed the incident below:
UPDATE #3: Police have identified the man. Mugshot found here.