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Live CNN reporter mugged at knifepoint by homeless man who ran away with both her cell phones

Bruna Macedo was covering a report on heavy rains when she was threatened and robbed

A CNN Brazil reporter was robbed at knifepoint by a homeless man during a live broadcast covering the heavy rains in São Paulo. Bruna Macedo and her news crew had been standing near the Bandeiras Bridge in the city to report on the rising water level in the Teté River due to the rains on Saturday, June 27, when the shocking incident unfolded.

During the segment, the suspect could be initially seen appearing in the background and looking over a bridge barrier as Macedo spoke with her colleague back in the studio, Rafael Colombo. Around two minutes into the broadcast, the man started inching towards where Macedo had positioned herself. While startled, the reporter greets him amicably as Colombo continued to speak about flooding points in São Paulo.

The situation quickly escalated when the man pulls out a knife on Macedo, who is visibly shocked and slowly takes a few steps back before handing one of her cell phones to him. To shift attention away from the mugging, the control center panned the camera away and aired the shot of a street. But the mugger doesn't go away and Macedo is forced to hand him a second cell phone off-camera as well. He then bolts from the area and makes his escape. The suspect has not yet been identified or arrested yet.

Speaking to Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, Colombo later revealed that his colleague had not been injured and shared the details he had learned about the incident. "It was impossible to understand what was happening at the time, if it was a homeless person passing by," he said. "But after what happened, we cut the image and explained (the phone) was stolen."

"He threatened her and she handed over a cell phone, but he knew she had two because she has a private and a corporate one," he continued. "She had a terrible scare, but she is fine, she didn't have any kind of injuries." Local outlets reported that Macedo had joined CNN in October 2019 as a video reporter during the restructuring of the organization. She had previously worked for RecordTV as the head reporter for eight years between 2011 and 2019.

However, this is not the first time that a reporter has been mugged on live TV, with a similar incident unfolding in South Africa in 2015, according to Unilad. Vuyo Mvoko, who had been working as a contributing editor at SABC News, had been speaking on camera outside of Johannesburg's Millpark Hospital when he was threateningly approached by a group of men. He could be heard exclaiming during the broadcast, which was abruptly cut, that he and the crew were being mugged.  He later told SABC News that the men wanted to steal his mobile phone, which he had been holding in his hands, and that one of the suspects had brandished a gun. "It was literally seconds before going on air," he shared.