John Slattery, a general assignment reporter with WCBS-TV (Channel 2) in New York City, died on Wednesday just hours after appearing on a local news broadcast.
The cause of death was unknown.
Slattery was a 30-year veteran of WCBS-TV. Recently he served the station as a general assignment reporter. On Wednesday, he filed a story about a Good Samaritan who was attacked after trying to intervene in a mugging.
Before working at WCBS-TV, Slattery worked at WABC-TV (Channel 7) where he covered the assassination of musician John Lennon. The coverage won WABC a regional Emmy award.
Four years later, he moved to WCBS-TV and remained at the station up until his death. The New York Daily News called Slattery one of “the city’s longest-serving television reporters.”
“We are saddened by the unexpected passing of our friend and colleague,” WCBS-TV general manager Peter Dunno told the paper. “During his nearly 30-year career at WCBS, he was great at reporting the news and was someone we counted on to cover big stories for us, both here in New York and around the world.”
Slattery covered the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson” plane landing and Hurricane Sandy during his tenure at the station.
Slattery’s final broadcast appears below:
