A veteran ABC News cameraman was killed yesterday in a car accident while on the way to cover the Omaha mall massacre.
Ralph Binder, who started at ABC News in 1974, was driving with soundman Dan Johnson from Denver to Omaha to cover the mall shooting. According to police, while traveling along I-80 near Grand Island, Nebraska, their vehicle swerved to avoid a car that had lost control. Binder was killed while Johnson was treated and released from the hospital.
Binder spent decades working out of the Washington D.C. bureau, but moved to Denver a few years ago and worked extensively as a freelancer for ABC News.
“Just last month, Ralph was Charlie [Gibson’s] cameraman during the California wildfires,” an ABC News official wrote yesterday in an internal memo to staffers informing them of Binder’s death.
He is survived by his wife, Joy, who works as a freelance producer, also for ABC News, and their two sons, 12- and 9-years old.