News anchor held at gunpoint in attempted carjacking on Halloween, Mississippi cops say
A TV news anchor is speaking out days after she and her family were held at gunpoint in an attempted carjacking on Halloween night.
Megan West, evening anchor at WAPT 16 in Jackson, Mississippi, took to social media to thank viewers for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support.
“Thank you for caring about my family,” West wrote in a Nov. 2 Facebook post. “I mean that deeply.”
The longtime journalist and her husband were trick-or-treating with their two kids in the city’s Belhaven community, deputy Chief of Police Deric Hearn said at a news conference. As they were preparing to head home, the couple said they were approached by three men who threatened them with a gun and demanded their belongings — including their car keys.
Hearn said authorities have persons of interest “that have been identified in other crimes” and who could possibly be involved in the Oct. 31 incident.
West told the men that the keys were inside the car before she and her family fled to a friend’s house nearby, WAPT reported. The suspects got away with her husband’s wallet, Hearn said, but left the car behind because they couldn’t find the keys.
No one was injured.
In a statement, West explained why she decided to break her silence.
“Journalists aren’t supposed to be the story,” she wrote. “It’s one of the first rules we are taught. But the thing is, nearly every single day I ask someone, often a stranger, to relive something horrible that’s just happened to them because I truly believe it is the only way we *might* be able to prevent that something horrible from happening again. I would forever feel like a hypocrite if I kept quiet.”
Authorities said the incident is being investigated.