AFP, Irpin

Sun, 13 March 2022

A US journalist was shot dead and another wounded on Sundayin Irpin, a frontline northwest suburb of Kyiv, medics and witnesses told AFP.

Danylo Shapovalov, a surgeon volunteering for the Ukrainianterritorial defense, said one of the Americans died instantly and he hadtreated the other.

AFP reporters in Irpin saw the body of the victim. A thirdvictim, a Ukrainian who had been in the same car as the Americans, was alsowounded.

Ukrainian officials were quick to blame Russian forces forthe shooting but the exact circumstances were unclear. AFP reporters heardsmall arms and artillery fire in the area.

"The car was shot at. There were two journalists andone of ours (a Ukrainian)," Shapovalov told AFP.

"Our guy and the journalist are wounded, I providedthem first aid, the other one received a wound in the neck, he diedimmediately."

Papers found on the American reporter's body identified himas 50-year-old video documentary shooter Brent Renaud, of New York.

A New York Times identity card was among the papers, leadingto reports he worked for the paper, but the US daily said he was not workingfor it at the time of his death.

"Brent was a talented photographer and filmmaker whohad contributed to The New York Times over the years," said a statementtweeted by deputy managing editor Cliff Levy.

"Though he had contributed to The Times in the past(most recently in 2015), he was not on assignment for any desk at The Times inUkraine."

Brent Renaud. Photo: uark.edu