Slain, Wounded Journalists Praised By TED ANTHONY AP National Writer 902 Words 5682 Characters 01/12/99 AP Online International Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. They came from all over one continent - from New York City, from Ontario, from Iowa - to cover a war in the corner of another, to tell the world about a place that few had heard of and even fewer had ever considered visiting. Myles Tierney, Ian Stewart and David Guttenfelder, journalists for The Associated Press in Africa, brought a long list of reporting credits - and risks - to their assignment in the chaotic West African nation of Sierra Leone. But on a hot, sunny Sunday, the dizzying unpredictability so familiar to those who have covered Africa caught up with them for several seconds. Tierney, 34, from New York City, a Kenya-based producer for Associated Press Television News who one colleague said "lived his life like it was the 100-yard dash," was killed instantly when a rebel soldier peppered the AP vehicle with gunfire. Stewart, 32, from Toronto, known for chasing one story and coming back with many more, was seriously wounded in the head. Guttenfelder, 29, of Waukee, Iowa, one of the AP's most intrepid photographers, was cut by flying glass and was the only one of the three who escaped serious injury. "They just wanted to kill someone. Maybe we were the closest to them," Guttenfelder said Monday from his home base, the AP's West Africa bureau in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Stewart, the West Africa chief of bureau, was airlifted Monday to London, where he was to undergo surgery for a bullet in the brain. He was in stable condition Monday night. AP President Louis D. Boccardi praised Tierney as "a brave and adventurous man" and mourned the attack. "We are in awe of the sacrifices they and others make so we can carry out our mission," Boccardi said Monday. "Africa was the opportunity in his life to realize himself," said Tierney's mother, Hanne. "And he did. This was where all of his talents really came to the fore." Guttenfelder recounted a surreal day that began at a hotel outside downtown Freetown, the unstable capital, with the AP journalists and their colleagues from other organizations trying to obtain firsthand information about the situation in the city. They'd tried to move around Saturday but couldn't because of the warfare on the streets. Sunday seemed less tense, Guttenfelder said. On the street they came upon Julius Spencer, Sierra Leone's minister of communications, who offered to escort them into town. With him were soldiers from ECOMOG, the West African regional peacekeeping force. "He said ... it was a matter of mopping up," Guttenfelder said. "He wanted to show us - and us to show the world - that they were very much in control." The journalists were skeptical, but they saw subtle signs of improvement: troops moving freely, gasoline stations reopening. As they neared downtown, and part of the convoy headed down to take a look at the city's center, shots reverberated in the distance. Down a hill they went, past the soccer stadium, past hulks of blown-up cars, past fallen traffic lights, past shuttered buildings, past corpses set upon by vultures. Then, around a corner, they encountered five armed men in American- style jeans and flipflops. One, Guttenfelder remembered, "was wearing a black bowler hat - like in `A Clockwork Orange."' No one was sure: Were they rebels or looters? "They looked kind of charged up, maybe drugged up. They were smiling, kind of laughing, acting like everything was cool," Guttenfelder said. "I felt immediately they were different. ... (But) it seemed impossible that a rebel would get that close." Then, in seconds: An ECOMOG soldier spoke to the men in a Nigerian tongue; one responded in another dialect. And things fell apart. One armed man fired a burst of shots into the AP car - a brazen act, given the ECOMOG firepower surrounding him.. "I get the feeling that he knew they were going to be killed, and they didn't care," Guttenfelder said. Tierney died instantly. Stewart went down moaning. "I just felt this blast of heat and glass," Guttenfelder said. "I immediately put my head down and I heard shooting for a couple of seconds. ... Myles was obviously dead. ... I grabbed Ian and drug him down into the car, then got out of the car into the street. ECOMOG soldiers fired back, killing the shooter and another rebel. The driver took off with Stewart and Tierney to the ECOMOG staging area in western Freetown. Guttenfelder was left behind. He shot a few pictures, then hurried to the base to help arrange an airlift for Stewart and for Tierney's body. Though he was a cameraman, Tierney's byline appeared on a range of stories from Africa. He joined AP's TV arm in 1996, organizing coverage of a military coup in Burundi. He set up the agency's first TV bureau in New York before returning to Africa in 1997. Tierney is survived by his mother and a sister, Loren, both of New York City. The family planned a private funeral; the AP was arranging a memorial service. The AP has withdrawn all foreign journalists from Sierra Leone for now. Tierney is the 24th AP journalist to die in the line of duty in the organization's 150-year history. On Monday, at AP headquarters in New York City, his picture was posted in memoriam. In it, he appears dressed for action. Atop his head is an AP hat. And he is smiling.