Tierney, a Nairobi-based television producer for Associated Press Television News (APTV), was killed in Freetown while riding with several other journalists when his vehicle was sprayed with bullets by a man reported to be a Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel. A West African peacekeeping force (ECOMOG) soldier was in the vehicle with the journalists when an armed man approached them and, after an exchange with the soldier, opened fire on the passengers with a semiautomatic rifle. Tierney was killed instantly. Ian Stewart, 32, APTV West Africa bureau chief, was critically wounded. Nairobi-based AP photographer David Guttenfelder suffered cuts from broken glass.