US journalist Brent Renaud killed by Russian forces in Ukraine: Kyiv police

An award-winning journalist and former New York Times contributor died outside Kyiv on Sunday under Russian attacks, according to the region’s police chief.

According to authorities and a witness, Brent Renaud, 51, a video journalist who has also covered for NBC, Vice News, and HBO, was  shot in the neck when Russian troops opened fire on a car near the Romanivsky Bridge in the Ukrainian town of Irpin.

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“The occupants … kill even journalists of the international media who try to show the truth about the inaction of Russian troops in Ukraine,” Kyiv Chief of Police Andrey Nebitov wrote on Facebook.

“Of course, the profession of a journalist is a risk, but US citizen Brent Renaud paid with his life for trying to highlight the aggressor’s ingenuity, cruelty and ruthlessness.”

Nebitov also posted a video of a police officer arriving on the site with a bloodied man’s body.

Two other journalists were also hurt in the attack and sent to the hospital, according to Nebitov.

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“We had crossed the first bridge in Irpin. We were going to film other refugees leaving. We got into a car. Somebody offered to take us to the other bridge,” he told the Italian paper Internazionale, the Daily Mail reported.

“We crossed a checkpoint, and they started shooting at us. The driver turned around, there were two of us. My friend is Brent Renaud,” he said.

Juan claimed that Renaud was shot by the attackers and that he was compelled to depart without his companion for his own protection.

“He has been shot and left behind. I saw he has been shot in the neck. We got split,” he said.

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Renaud’s body was discovered on the side of the road under a blanket, according to PBS correspondent Jane Ferguson.

“Ukrainian medics could do nothing to help him by that stage,” she wrote on Twitter. “Outraged Ukrainian police officer: ‘Tell America, tell the world, what they did to a journalist.’ “

The attack comes at a time when Irpin has been heavily shelled by Russian forces.

Reanud’s death was announced in a statement by the New York Times on Sunday.

“We are deeply saddened to hear of Brent Renaud’s death. Brent was a talented filmmaker who had contributed to The New York Times over the years,”  a New York Times representative spoke to New York Post.

Though he was initially described as a New York Times journalist, the spokesperson stated that he was not on duty for the newspaper at the time of his death.

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“Early reports that he worked for Times circulated because he was wearing a Times press badge that had been issued for an assignment many years ago.”

According to their website, Renaud previously received a Peabody Award for his work on a Vice News documentary about a Chicago high school with his brother, Craig. The Renaud Brothers had worked on documentary projects for their company in Iran, Afghanistan, Haiti, Egypt, Libya, and Mosul.