CA Lockdown Protester Charged With Kidnapping News Crew, Wanted Them To Delete Video Of Him At Protest

The Sacramento Bee reports:

A 36-year-old man pulled a knife Friday on a television news team covering an anti-lockdown protest in Huntington Beach, California. Christien Francis Petersen of Costa Mesa has been jailed on suspicion of exhibiting a deadly weapon other than a firearm and kidnapping.

Petersen approached a KTTV cameraman and reporter, produced a pocket knife and forced them into a news van to delete any footage in which he may have appeared, the station reported. The journalists had been covering a Huntington Beach protest against a state shelter-in-place order issued to try to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Petersen, whose arrest form listed him as an attorney, was arrested about 7:50 p.m. He was being held on $100,000 bail. Police said Petersen, who may have been intoxicated, was upset that he had been filmed by the KTTV news team at a “Live Free or Die” really earlier Friday.

Costa Mesa man faces kidnapping charge after holding FOX 11 photographer at knifepoint https://t.co/jUz5OXveUp pic.twitter.com/QNHKUZLro7

— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) April 20, 2020

Christien Francis Peterson is (or more likely, was) also a semi-literate criminal defense attorney specializing in DUIs. “Payment methods: Cash.”

Perfect. https://t.co/EqNxb5hv0J

— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) April 21, 2020