5 things to know about US journalist Brent Renaud who was killed in Ukraine

Brent Renaud, 51, an acclaimed US filmmaker and journalist was killed in Ukrainian city Irpin, in a firing by Russian forces on March 13, 2022. He is also the first foreign journalist to have been killed in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. His photo journalist friend from Colombia, Juan Arredondo, was also injured in the attack.

“You could sit down and spend a week watching all of Brent’s stories over the years back-to-back and just be flabbergasted,” Chritof Putzel, a friend and colleague of Brent told CNN after his death in Ukraine on Sunday.

Renaud, who was a Peabody award-winning filmmaker, was known for covering refugee crisis all over the world. Before his project in Ukraine, he was working on a documentary on refugees around the world. He took the flight to Ukraine the very next day after the Russian forces attacked the country. He was covering refugees from Kyiv to Poland.

Here are five points on Brent Renaud and his death in Ukraine:

1. SHOT ON THE NECK

Photographer Arredondo, who was with Brent in his final moments, said that he and Brent were driving through the checkpoint in Irpin. The two were on the way to film the refugees leaving the city when Russian troops opened fire on their car.

Arredondo himself fell unconscious after the attack. He got injured by the shelling and shrapnel wound on his thigh. He underwent a surgery in the hospital. The last thing he remembered about Brent is him being shot in the neck.

?? Two American journalist shot by Russian at Irpin bridge. One is under surgery at the main hospital in Kyiv and the other was shot at the neck. pic.twitter.com/9lihX1JJ58

— annalisa camilli (@annalisacamilli) March 13, 2022

Danylo Shapovalov, a surgeon volunteering for Ukranian territorial defense told the AFP that Brent died immediately after the attack.

2. NEWS OF DEATH FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

The news of Brent’s death in Ukraine came from a social media post on Facebook. Andriy Nebytov, Kyiv’s Police Chief, posted about Brent’s death on Facebook. His post read, ”The occupants cynically kill even journalists of international media, who have been trying to tell the truth about atrocities of Russian military in Ukraine." 

3. A BRAVE JOURNALIST

A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Brent was known for his marvellous work. In 2004, his documentary Off to War showed the training and deployment of Arkansas National Guardsmen to Iraq. The documentary highlighted the impact of war on families.

In 2019, he was at the University of Arkansas as visiting distinguished professor of journalism ethics.

Larry Foley, strategic media chair for the university’s school of journalism said, ”It takes special breed, special kind of journalists who will have the courage to go to those difficult places, war zones, to report the truth.”

4. COLLABORATED WITH BROTHER

He produced several humanistic stories with his brother Crain Renaud from the world’s warzones. Their projects involve documentaries on Iraq war, Afghanistan, earthquake in Haiti, political turmoil in Egypt and Libya.

In 2004, the two worked together on the Iraq War, where they were with the US army when a rocket attack at the American base left four soldiers dead and two injured.

In the year 2014-15, the sibling duo filmed the migration of 68,000 people from the South American nations to the United States.

The two worked together on the documentaries New York City and Little Rock. Together, they also won the Peabody Award in 2014 for Last Chance High, a documentary showing Chicago school serving students. In 2012, the two won the DuPont-Columbia University award for Surviving Haiti’s Earthquake, an 11-minute documentary.

Together, the Renauds also founded the Little Rock Film Festival.

5. PREVIOUSLY WORKED WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES

Apart from his passport photo, an outdated photo of his New York Times press badge was recovered from Renaud by the Ukrainian authorities. 

New York Times also released a statement condemning Brent’s death and clarifying that the journalist wasn’t on any assignment in Ukraine for the publication.