FOX Reporter Brutally Beaten in Front of the Camera

John Mattes, an investigative reporter for FOX 6 News was in California, following the lead of two persons who stole identities, used them to buy houses and then rented them. The reporter was talking to a third person outside a La Jolla home, when a woman began screaming at them to cut it out.

The suspects, identified later by the police as being Assad 'Sam' Suleiman (36) and his wife Rosa Amelia Barraza (33), launched a most violent attack on the unsuspecting reporter. According to police papers, after the woman yelled at the two men to 'stop it!', she sprayed them with water and then threw the empty bottle right in Mattes' face.

She then started to swear, kick and hit Mattes and when her husband arrived, only a few seconds later, both kicked the reporter to the ground and hit him with everything they came close to. The entire incident was caught on tape by the cameraman that was accompanying Mattes.

Yesterday, in NBC's 'Today Show', the bruised correspondent, who had to be treated for broken ribs and facial lacerations, was able to give a full account of what exactly went down at the scene: 'He literally just came flying straight at me... and I am feeling someone ripping at my face, pulling at my hair... We are talking about someone gouging, scratching and biting me. He had his fingers in my eye socket, he was riping my face apart, he was pulling my ears, he was biting. It was horrifying and it felt pretty bad.'

At one point, the assailant's wife, the very same person who initiated the attack, threatened to bring out a gun and literally kill somebody. She was arrested for 'making a terrorist threat, displaying a deadly weapon, battery and theft for allegedly stealing the cameraman's microphone' and her husband for 'alleged felony assault', a police spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the third party (other than Mattes) involved in the incident, Brian Phillips, the man whom the reporter was interviewing, was named a 'honorable hero' by FOX 6, for placing himself at risk and saving Mattes' life.

Click here to see the video.

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