The Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who made the famous photo of the napalm girl during the Vietnam War was attacked in Washington, DC
The photographer, Nick Ut, was going to have dinner Thursday night with a friend when someone came up and punched him, reports NBC Washington.
“What happened last night, we had problems,” he said. “I didn’t really see that guy approaching me last night, and I hear screaming, but it’s too late for me, and he’s already punched me.”
Ut, 70, who was born in Vietnam, said he fell to the ground and hit a metal fence around a tree.
He detailed the attack in an Instagram post.
“He knocked me over and injured my ribs, back and left leg. The same leg I put mortar metal in the Vietnam War in,” wrote Ut. “Secret service so quick to come and help.”
Mark Edward Harris, an award-winning photographer and longtime friend of Ut, told NBC Washington that he took a picture of Ut after the attack. He said the suspect was arrested by the police.
The day before the attack, Ut received the National Medal of Arts award from President Donald Trump. The Secret Service did not immediately return a request for comment on Saturday and it is not clear whether Ut was the target or whether the attack was random.
Ut was famous for a photograph he took in 1972 during the Vietnam War of 9-year-old Kim Phuc, running down a street after a napalm attack.
After taking the photo, he rushed the girl to the hospital, where doctors were able to save her, according to The Associated Press.
Ut, who worked for AP until he retired from the outlet in 2017, won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. He is the first journalist to receive the National Medal of Arts, the highest award granted by the federal government.
Ut told NBC Washington that he plans to stay in DC until taking office to take pictures.
