Security Guard For a News Crew Covering Recent Smash-and-Grab Burglary Shot and Killed in Oakland, CA During Armed Robbery

Over the past week, brazen groups of thieves, with some tallying as many as 90, riding in caravans with dozens of vehicles, wielding hammers and sometimes guns, have ransacked high-end stores across the Bay Area, before racing off with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise.

Things have now turned deadly as a security guard who was shot while working with a local TV news station covering one such recent burglary in downtown Oakland has died, police released a surveillance photo of a suspect vehicle in the shooting.

Kevin Nishita was working as a security guard for a KRON television news crew, who at the time was reporting on a recent smash-and-grab burglary at the clothing store Prime 356 that happened Monday night.

Some of the robberies have been caught on video and have drawn national attention, prompting action from local law enforcement and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently called on local mayors to “step up.”

Newsom, however, has not found time to address the issue on Twitter, although he tweeted about the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.

“America today: you can break the law, carry around weapons built for a military, shoot and kill people, and get away with it. That’s the message we’ve just sent to armed vigilantes across the nation,” Newsom claimed in regards to the Rittenhouse verdict.

In regards to the crime wave, Newsom told reporters, “They’re not just stealing people’s products and impacting their livelihoods, they’re stealing a sense of place and confidence.”

Homicide investigators with the Oakland police department have released a surveillance photo of a vehicle they believe was used in the attempted robbery during which Nishita was fatally shot and a reward of $32,500 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest.

The suspect vehicle is a white 4-door 2004 – 2008 Acura TL with a sunroof and no front license plate, according to police.

Nishita was a former police officer himself who worked for the Star Protection Agency California, based in Oakland, and he is survived by his wife, two children, and three grandchildren.