TORONTO -- The U.S. reporter who was allegedly groped on live television took to Twitter to say how she’d felt violated and embarrassed after the incident was captured on video and went viral.
The incident happened on Saturday when Alex Bozarjian, a reporter for NBC affiliate WSAV in Savannah, Ga., was covering the annual Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run, and was standing near the path of the marathon.
The clip starts with participants running past her with some making faces at the camera -- one nearly bumps into her.
But then, a male marathon participant -- wearing sunglasses and a hat -- comes up from behind her and allegedly gropes her. Bozarjian is visibly shocked and stares at the man for a few seconds before resuming her coverage.
The clip had been viewed more than eight million times as of Sunday.
After the video went viral, Bozarjian came forward to express her outrage.
“To the man who smacked my butt on live TV this morning: You violated, objectified, and embarrassed me,” she wrote. “No woman should EVER have to put up with this at work or anywhere!! Do better.”
On Sunday, the organizers of the event wrote they had identified the runner and that they had shared his information with the reporter and the NBC affiliate.
In a series of tweets, Savannah Sports Council, which organizes sport-related events for the city, addressed the reporter being “inappropriately touched by a registered participant of the event.”
“We will not tolerate behavior like this at a Savannah Sports Council event. We have made the decision to ban this individual from registering for all Savannah Sports Council owned races,” they tweeted.
Robert Wells, the director of the Savannah Sports Council, had tweeted at Bozarjian, saying, “what happened today is 100% unacceptable.”
CTVNews.ca has reached out to Bozarjian on Twitter but she had not responded by publication time.
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