A man accused of slapping a female reporter’s backside while she was live on air covering a race has been charged with sexual battery, jail records show.
Thomas Callaway, 43, was arrested on Friday, according to the jail records from Chatham County, Georgia.
Alex Bozarijan, a reporter for WSAV in Savannah, Georgia, addressed the incident on Twitter and said the man had “violated, objectified and embarrassed” her.
Video from Bozarjian’s live broadcast Dec. 7 posted online showed one of the passing runners appearing to swat her from behind. The video shows the stunned woman stop talking for a moment and stare as if shocked. The video clip had been viewed more than 11 million times on Twitter as of Friday.
“I would say that the reason why, you know, maybe it caught so much fire is because the emotion is extremely relatable for women all over the world,” Bozarijan said on “CBS This Morning,” addressing the widespread attention the incident had received.
Bozarijan also said on the news channel that the slap stung and was a heavy impact.
According to Bozarijan’s employer, WSAV, she filed a police report with the Savannah Police Department.
The news channel issued the following statement:
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