Fox News Broadcasts Suicide After High Speed Chase: Apologizes to Viewers and Carjacker is Identified [Videos] [Photo]

Fox News high speed chase coverage turned into an on-air suicidal nightmare for Phoenix viewers. At 3 p.m. Shep Smith narrated the events of a carjacking that was being pursued by police on an Arizona highway. The identified carjacker, Jodon Romero, 33, fired multiple shots at officers and later shot himself.

Eventually, Romero got out of his vehicle and tried to get away from police by foot. Suddenly, Smith began to yell at his control room and producers to, "Get off! Get off! Get off! Get off it. Get off it. Get off it!" By that time it had been too late and the suspect had shot himself in the head and footage was aired for all to witness.

Immediately, they cut to a commercial break and when they returned a sadden Smith addressed the viewers saying, "While we were taking that car chase and showing it to you live, when the guy pulled over and got out of the vehicle, we went on delay. So that's why I didn't talk for about 10 seconds. We created a five second delay. As if you were to bleep back your DVR five seconds, that's what we did with the picture we were showing you, so that we could see in the studio five seconds before you did, so if anything went horribly wrong, we would be able to cut away from it without subjecting you to it." He added, "Obviously, the five second delay wasn't quite enough -- because the audience was subjected to it. Smith and his team acknowledge their error. "We really messed up," he says, "and we're all very sorry. That didn't belong on TV. We took every precaution we knew how to take to keep that from being on TV, and I personally apologize to you that that happened."

With much sorrow, Smith continued, "Sometimes we see a lot of things that we don't let get to you, because it's not time appropriate, it's insensitive, it's just wrong. And that was wrong. And that won't happen again on my watch. And I'm sorry. We'll update you on what happened with that guy and how that went down tonight on 'The Fox Report.' I'm sorry."

After the incident, Fox News released a statement from the Executive Vice President, Michael Clemente, "We took every precaution to avoid any such live incident by putting the helicopter pictures on a five second delay. Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severe human error and we apologize for what viewers ultimately saw on the screen."