Longtime ABC News Correspondent, Famous For His Coverage of O.J. Simpson, Dies at 69

Jim Avila, a longtime ABC News correspondent, has “passed away after a long illness,” ABC News Live anchor Diane Macedo announced on Thursday, November 13. Avila was 69. The journalist began his career at KCBS radio in San Francisco and later transitioned to TV as an investigative reporter for KNBC in Los Angeles, where he was at the scene of the crime following Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman’s murders in 1994. He also heavily covered the subsequent O.J. Simpson police chase and trial in real time. “It was one of the highlights of my career covering the news,” Avila, who won an Emmy for his reporting on the trial, told San Diego’s ABC10 News last year. “This was two years of my life watching what happened to this man.” “We send our heartfelt condolences to his family, including his three children, Jamie, Jenny, and Evan, and we thank him for his many contributions and unwavering commitment to seeking out the truth,” President of ABC News Almin Karamehmedovic said in a statement, via People.