A woman accused of assaulting ABC6 Reporter Abbey Niezgoda and Photographer Marc Jackson has been taken into custody according to Providence Police.
In the video, Melissa Lawrence,
wielding a baseball bat, throws a rock at the ABC6 crew and then sends her dogs to attack. The incident happened on Tuesday afternoon when an ABC6 crew showed up on the street in front of her home on Public Street in Providence to ask a question.
Lawrence was arraigned on two counts of felony assault with a dangerous weapon in Providence District Court on Wednesday afternoon. She was released on $50,000 personal recognizance.
The crew was inquiring about an arrest that was made related to a shooting over the weekend in which the woman's 16-year-old
daughter was shot at a kindergarten graduation party held at the home. The daughter had already been released from the hospital with a gunshot wound to her lower back.
The woman began yelling obscenities at the ABC6 crew and then unleashed her two dogs and said
"sic ‘em." One of the dogs bit reporter Abbey Niezgoda.
Providence animal control attempted to locate the dogs on Tuesday evening and Wednesday but were unsuccessful. Animal Control tells ABC6 that if Lawrence does not cooperate with authorities in regards to a mandatory 10-day rabies quarantine she could face "no less than 10 days and no more than 30 days," in prison.
(c) WLNE-TV 2013
What would you have done if you were the reporter?
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