Pair held, 1 IDd in Oakland slaying

Security guard protecting TV news crew from armed robbery was shot

Oakland police arrested two people on suspicion of taking part in the fatal shooting of security guard Kevin Nishita as he protected a television news crew from an armed robbery in the city, Chief LeRonne Armstrong said Wednesday.

Armstrong said a third suspect had been identified by detectives. He did not name any of the people.

“We are continuing to investigate the case,” Armstrong said shortly after the department’s latest academy class was sworn in at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center. “We are closing in on this investigation.”

The chief said his department was working with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and was seeking murder charges against all three suspects, as all three were allegedly present when Nishita was shot.

A District Attorney’s Office spokesperson said Wednesday that no charges had yet been filed in the case.

Nishita, a former Bay Area police officer at multiple agencies, was shot Nov. 24 while trying to protect a KRON-TV reporter from a group of men trying to steal the journalist’s camera, police said.

Nishita was transported to Highland Hospital with critical injuries and died three days later.

Television crews began hiring ex-cops as armed security guards in recent years after a number of robberies in which men made off with expensive camera gear, making it difficult for journalists to safely report stories in Oakland.

On Monday, the chief announced that investigators had recovered a car that matched the description of a vehicle used in the shooting of Nishita