Reporter slammed on social media for alerting the police to 'looters'

Tom Llamas (Twitter)

With all eyes on the growing tragedy in Houston, one reporter was being taken to task for his prioritizing of events. After noticing what he called "looters," ABC’s Tom Llamas was being criticized by many on social media for his response.

Llamas is an anchor for the network’s “World News Tonight” and is on the ground in Houston covering the effects of Hurricane Harvey. While there, he spotted something that he felt compelled to not only tweet to his followers, but report to police as well.

His tweet read: "#Breaking We're witnessing looting right now at a large supermarket in the NE part of Houston & police have just discovered a body nearby."

Many Twitter users took issue with the fact that he Tweeted about the looters before the body. Others were upset at the idea of characterizing people getting food during a disaster as “looters.”

In a second tweet, that’s since been removed, Llamas explained that he and his team informed police of the looting and that the Coast Guard was now flying overhead to prevent further action.

The storm of negative responses eventually prompted Llamas to send a follow-up tweet explaining the one he deleted. In it, he claimed that he was already with police when they discovered the body and that he merely mentioned the looters after the fact.

Still, it did not seem to quell his critics on Twitter.