Victorville Newspaper Offers $1,000 Reward in Attack on Photographer

A $1,000 reward was being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man who attacked a newspaper photographer at a park Tuesday night.

Victorville Daily Press photographer David Pardo was taking pictures at Hesperia Lake for an upcoming summer guide, when a woman who he had taken photos of told him to delete them because she felt he had violated her privacy, the newspaper reported.

Pardo declined, citing company policy, but assured the woman he would not publish the pictures, the newspaper said. Before he left the park, the woman met with Pardo again, this time with two men.

One of the men allegedly swung at Pardo, knocking him to the ground. The man then grabbed the camera equipment, smashed it and threw it in the lake, and continued to punch and kick the photographer, the newspaper reported.

"It's my hope that this small reward will prompt bystanders who witnessed this attack and can identify these people to come forward so that law enforcement can get this man off the streets before he hurts anyone else," Daily Press Editor Steve Hunt said in an article published on the newspaper's website Thursday. "This was a cowardly act."

Pardo declined medical attention after the attack, said Karen Hunt, a San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman at the Hesperia station.

The newspaper said Pardo suffered an injury to his jaw and later went to the hospital.