St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, and Brentwood resident Paul Hampel was “beaten, bloodied and robbed by a group of attackers” Sunday night as as covered the Ferguson protests on the anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown Jr. on Aug. 9, 2014, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Hampel said he was rushed from behind as he was taking photos of break-ins along West Florissant Avenue. See some of Hampel’s videos and photos from Ferguson Sunday night on his Twitter feed at @phampel.
“I got swarmed, beaten down really bad,” he told the Post-Dispatch. He said he was punched in the face, hit him in the head and kicked him in the back of the head when he was on the ground.
Hampel said he suffered a concussion and was kept overnight at a hospital for evaluation.
Read the full article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Update: At 4 p.m. Monday the Post-Dispatch reported that Hampel had been released from the hospital.
This is so awful! Paul is good person and journalists are very important to help make change. People who resort to this sort of violence hurt EVERYONE! I believe that Black Lives Matter and support all the peaceful protests and demonstrations going on. But throwing rocks at police officers, beating up reporters and looting crosses a line and the people responsible are just making things worse, not working for change and healing. They are criminals and must be stopped!
I know Paul and he is a great man, husband, father, and reporter. This is such a shame. It was obvious he was with the press and the post has been very fair when it comes to reporting on ferguson. I won’t go into detail on my anger at people who did this. But I hope they arrest all of them and they are held accountable for their actions.
I hope Paul has a speedy recovery and no long term affects.