Reporter Slams Man Who Groped Her on Live TV: ‘You Violated, Objectified, and Embarrassed Me’

A female reporter was left shocked and violated while covering the annual Enmarket Savannah Bridge Run in Georgia over the weekend.

Alex Bozarjian, a reporter for WSAV-TV, was speaking to the camera at the event on Saturday when a male participant smacked her butt and continued to run past her.

The 16-second video, which was shared to Twitter, showed Bozarjian narrating the race to the camera as plenty of runners playfully zoomed past her. But after a male smacked her butt, Bozarjian lost her composure and was in shock as her attention shifted to watching the man run away.

Several seconds later, Bozarjian returned to her reporting duties but was still visibly shaken from what had transpired.

After the video gained significant attention on social media, Bozarjian slammed the man’s actions on Twitter.

“To the man who smacked my butt on live TV this morning: You violated, objectified, and embarrassed me,” she wrote. “No woman should EVER have to put up with this at work or anywhere!! Do better.”

Bozarjian did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The Savannah Sports Council, which owns and operates the bridge run, said on Twitter Sunday that they had identified the individual and shared his information with Bozarjian and WASAV-TV.

The council also said that the individual was banned from registering for future events.

“We will not tolerate behavior like this at a Savannah Sports Council event. We have made the decision to ban this individual from registering for all Savannah Sports Council owned races,” the tweet read.

While eagle-eyed Twitter users identified the man on Twitter, his identity has not been publicly confirmed by the run’s officials. Neither the council nor the alleged groper immediately returned PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

The Savannah Police Department told NBC News that authorities have been in touch with Bozarjian regarding the incident.

“We’ve talked to her about the situation. I can’t discuss it further, but it’s up to Alexandrea on how she wants to handle the situation,” said Keturah Greene, public information coordinator for the Savannah Police Department. “All I can say is we have made contact with Alexandrea and we are definitely going to be working with her in any capacity on how she’d like to move forward with this incident.”

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