The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it would assign a detective to investigate the Saturday night shooting of paparazzi photographer Brad Diaz, hit with a shot from a pellet gun while staking out a Britney Spears baby shower. Hit in the thigh, he was treated at a hospital and released, reports the Los Angeles Times. A sheriff’s spokesman said nearly two dozen media organizations had called about the incident.
Diaz said the shot had come from the direction of the hilltop property he was watching with more than a dozen other photographers. Spears’ security team told authorities they were not involved in the shooting. Some on both sides of paparazzi confrontations are suggesting that the incident is another sign of the increasingly dangerous cat-and-mouse game between the celebrity A-list and those who sell their images for big bucks. “It doesn’t matter if it’s an AK-47, a bazooka or a BB gun. The guy got shot,” said Frank Griffin, co-founder of a leading American paparazzi agency.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pellet8aug08,0,5513119.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=hpmoren