Reporter After Being Groped on Live TV: 'You Violated Me'

Man in bridge run smacked Alexandrea Bozarjian's behind as he ran past
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2019 7:47 AM CST
Reporter After Being Groped on Live TV: 'You Violated Me'
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/sportpoint)

A reporter covering a race this weekend in Georgia got an unexpected, and unwelcome, greeting from one of the runners, and she and race organizers made clear they weren't happy about it. NBC News reports WSAV's Alexandrea Bozarjian was on the Talmadge Bridge in Savannah on Saturday, reporting live from the Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run, when one of the race's participants hit her backside as he ran past her. A clip posted on Twitter shows Bozarjian laughing as some of the runners got too close to her, including ones who mugged for the camera as they went by. Bozarjian had just explained to viewers that some of the runners were even dressed in costume and that it was "very exciting." Right as she said that, a man in sunglasses and a baseball cap jogged by and appeared to grope her.

Bozarjian seemed thrown, and it took her a second or two before she went back to covering the race. Later that day, after the clip of what had happened started circulating, she addressed it on Twitter. "To the man who smacked my butt on live TV this morning: You violated, objectified, and embarrassed me," she posted. "No woman should EVER have to put up with this at work or anywhere!! Do better." The head of the Savannah Sports Council agreed. "This will not be tolerated at our events. Glad we have race bibs and photos for easy identification," Robert Wells wrote on Twitter. And apparently the man was found: The sports council says he's been banned from any of its future races. A rep for the Savannah Police Department tells NBC they've also been in touch with Bozarjian and "we are definitely going to be working with her" in whatever way she wants to handle the incident. (More groping stories.)

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