Death of 'Cops' crew member has Clovis ties

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A former crew member from the TV show "Cops" says he mentored the man shot and killed this week during the filming of an episode.

Bryce Dion, 38, was shot through the arm and chest by a police officer while his crew was filming a shootout.

Chaos and confusion usually on the TV screen, turns to the other side of the camera. Audio director Dion, while filming cops, gets caught in the line of fire when an armed robbery episode becomes a deadly shootout.

"It truly is a reality show. It's not manipulated it's not managed or staged, it's all true and it's real," said Cops producer John Langley.

Dion was inside this Wendy's capturing the exchange between Omaha officers and suspect 32-year-old Cortez Washington. When Washington ran out the door, Dion was hit with a bullet fired by police, hitting a spot unprotected by his bullet proof vest. Washington was also shot and killed.

"He had seen close calls and he had been in close calls. So he knew it could happen. But you put it in the back of your mind," said former Cops crew member Hank Barr.

Barr is a Clovis Police Department chaplain. He worked on the show for more than 20 years and was Dion's mentor. He says it's a thrilling but dangerous job.

"With the Cops crew we could do all that because we had signed our lives away," said Barr.

Producers of the reality TV series say it's the first time in the show's 25-year history a crew member has been killed.