Brent Renaud, an award-winning filmmaker and journalist, was shot and killed Sunday when his vehicle was riddled with bullets after passing a military checkpoint in Irpin, a Ukrainian city located on the outskirts of Kyiv that had seen intense gunfire in recent days, per AP News.
Renaud, 50, was in the area working on a project focused on the global refugee crisis for Time Studios. “We are devastated by the loss of Brent Renaud,” the studio said in a statement. “Our hearts are with all of Brent’s loved ones.” Journalist Juan Arredondo, who was the only other person traveling with him at the time of the incident, was struck in the lower back, but survived.
“We crossed the first bridge in Irpin, we were going to film other refugees leaving, and we got into a car, somebody offered to take us to the other bridge, we crossed the checkpoint, and they started shooting at us,” Arredondo told Italian journalist Annalisa Camilli.
Kyiv regional police released a statement accusing Russian troops of opening fire on the vehicle.
The U.S. State Department also condemned the attack.
“We are horrified that journalists and filmmakers—noncombatants—have been killed and injured in Ukraine by Kremlin forces,” the department said in a statement. “This is yet another gruesome example of the Kremlin’s indiscriminate actions.”
Renaud and his brother Craig won a Peabody Award in 2014 for their Vice News documentary Last Chance High about Moses Montefiore Academy, a school in Chicago for at-risk students. His site bio notes that hus assignments span the globe, and include covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2011 earthquake in Haiti, as well as political turmoil in Egypt and Libya.
