▶ Watch Video: Witness recounts attack on CBS News Chicago crew by 3 men near Adler Planetarium
Three people are in custody after two of our CBS News Chicago journalists were attacked while on the job Monday afternoon.
During the incident, a reporter and photographer were approached by three men, one with a dog, before their news truck and gear were destroyed.
Witnesses describe a white tow truck pulling up to the Adler Planetarium as our team was preparing for a live shot for the second half of the 4 p.m. newscast. During the interaction, the dog was ordered to intimidate or possibly attack our crew. The dog did not obey the commands.
Witnesses who saw what was happening said the attack was racially motivated, as slurs were being directed towards the photographer, who is an African American man.
“I think it’s a hate crime,” one witness said. “I believe anybody that uses a racial slur is committing a hate crime.”
Another witness, who wanted to remain anonymous for safety, said he saw the incident as it happened. He said he and his wife saw the CBS News Chicago crew setting up. Before they were able to do their story on the hot weather, he said he saw the dog running towards them, described as a German Shepherd.
“And then the guy was yelling at his dog to attack. He was throwing racial slurs [N-word] at the cameraman and then he started kicking his dog,” he said.
The witness says he and his wife tried to diffuse the situation but backed down when the photographer hit the attacker with a folding stool.
“And he swung it and hit the guy in the head. And he was unfazed. Like, he got hit hard by that chair. For good reason, and it didn’t even, like, flinch him, and I think he hit him again, if I remember correctly, he hit him again and he’s still unflinched, and I’m like, this guy is, like, he’s on something. He’s gotta be,” he said.
Both the reporter and photographer were unharmed.
The same three people in the same tow truck were later arrested less than half an hour after Chicago police said they were pointing weapons at people in Brighton Park.
“We didn’t see any guns in that moment, but to know that it escalated to that, or it could have been that, is just terrifying,” another witness said.
CBS News Chicago uncovered an image of a gun that was posted on social media just a few hours before the attack by a man believed to be one of the suspects.
Neither of the suspects was officially charged as of Tuesday afternoon. As charges are pending, we dug into the criminal histories of all three men—each with a violent history of charges for using a tow truck to commit another crime.
One had an active warrant out for their arrest. The second has an order of protection filed against them for threatening to burn a woman’s home down and breaking windows while children were present. The last was previously sentenced to six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for aggravated battery with a firearm.
CBS News Chicago legal analyst Irv Miller explained that the state’s attorney’s office is likely considering a hate crime charge as the only detainable offence for what happened to our crews near the planetarium.
“Aggravated assault is a misdemeanor. However, if hate crime is also added, that makes hate crime a felony, which, by the way, makes it a detainable offense under the Pretrial Safety Act,” he said.
Miller says the fact there are three people makes it harder for the state’s attorney’s office to distinguish who did what and how to charge accordingly.