ELYRIA — The prosecutor’s office is reviewing footage from a security camera of an incident on Monday between WOIO Channel 19 news reporter Carl Monday and a woman at the Shell gas station at Lorain Boulevard and Bell Avenue.
The woman called 911 and said she kicked Monday in the knee after he stuck a microphone and camera in her car and wouldn’t let her close the door.
The woman told the dispatcher that Monday and his news crew followed from the Speedway gas station to the Shell and grabbed her arm in an “aggressive” way and stuck a camera in her face.
Police responded to Lorain Boulevard at 2:23 p.m. and spoke with Monday and some of his production staff, police Capt. Chris Costantino said.
Monday was on an assignment looking for people involved with online scammers, Costantino said.
When Monday approached a woman he believed to be involved, she started running away, Costantino said. Monday went up to the car he believed the woman got into in the parking lot of Shell and put the microphone in the car, Costantino said. The woman shoved it away and attempted to close the door, but he was in the door frame, so she kicked him in the knee with her foot so she could close the door, Costantino said.
Monday and the woman both waited for police to arrive.
No charges have been filed, but Costantino said police asked the prosecutor’s office to take a look at video from the incident.
According to the 911 call, the woman said Monday told her he was a news reporter, but that she didn’t recognize him.
“I don’t know if he’s really the news, but he just followed us from one gas station to the other, came up to the car and would not let me get back in the car, so I kicked him in his leg and backed him away so I could close the door,” the woman said. “They’re saying they’re with the news … they literally chased us down talking about, are we a part of the case?”
A 911 call from a cashier inside the Shell also described the scene, saying the woman hit Monday “with her fists.”
