RED LAKE, Minn. – Two Minneapolis television reporters, Tom Hanneman and Keith Brown, were fired at and held prone at gunpoint while covering a feud between factions of the Red Lake band of the Chippewa. Hanneman said he was sitting in a rental car after winding up their story. Brown was outside with a camera for a final shot when, Hanneman said, he heard a “smack,” like a rock hitting the pavement. “It was a bullet,” he said. “Keith said just missed his head by about two inches.” A tribal member with a pistol approached and ordered Brown to smash his camera. He then ordered both reporters to lie on the road. He held the gun at their heads, cocked the trigger back, and said he was going to “blow our heads off.” The man got in the reorters’ car and tried over and over to run them over. The gunman eventually left with the car. A nearby family offered the journalists refuge and helped them get 35 miles to Bemidji.

Violent day

Tensions were high at Red Lake. Hanneman and Brown had been covering an armed faction that raided the Indian Bureau of Law Enforcement building. The dissidents took four police officers hostage. Later they set fire to the building and several police vehicles. Hannemann and Brown were on assignment for television station WCCO.