ABC News anchor Kyra Phillips said Monday that she was assaulted just blocks from the network’s Washington, D.C., bureau within the last two years, adding to concerns over public safety in the nation’s capital despite official reports of declining violent crime.
Phillips shared her experience during a live broadcast, referencing multiple recent crimes in close proximity to ABC’s offices.
“We’ve been talking so much about the numbers and yeah, usually that’s how you play devil’s advocate, is you talk about, ‘Oh, well stats say crime is down,’” she said.
“However, I can tell you firsthand here in downtown D.C. where we work right here around our bureau just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot. One person died literally two blocks down here from the bureau.”
She continued, “It was within the last two years that I actually was jumped walking just two blocks down from here. And then just this morning one of my coworkers said her car was stolen a block away from the bureau. So we can talk about the numbers going down, but crime is happening every single day because we’re all experiencing it firsthand while working and living down here.”
Hellbound and Down 