Police said the journalists were not injured after men damaged their camera equipment and news vehicle.
CHICAGO, IL — Three people were taken into custody Monday after a CBS News Chicago reporter and photographer were attacked while preparing for a live report near Adler Planetarium, police and the station said.
The attack happened on Chicago’s Museum Campus as the crew was setting up for the station’s 4 p.m. newscast. Police said the suspects used racial slurs, directed a dog toward one of the journalists and damaged station property before leaving in a white truck. No injuries were reported, and detectives continued to investigate what led to the confrontation.
The incident was reported about 4:25 p.m. in the 900 block of East Solidarity Drive, a lakefront stretch near Adler Planetarium. CBS Chicago said the reporter and photographer were outside their news van when three men in a white tow truck approached. Two witnesses visiting Chicago told the station the truck stopped directly in front of the news vehicle before the confrontation began. “They just were trying to do anything they could to scare them unnecessarily. It came out of nowhere,” one witness said. The station said one man moved toward the crew with a dog while yelling racial slurs at one of the journalists.
Chicago police said one of the men directed the dog to attack a 54-year-old victim, but the dog did not attack. Police said the man then became angry and damaged the victim’s property by throwing it to the ground. CBS Chicago reported that one suspect smashed the photographer’s camera, while another used a traffic cone to smash the windshield of the news truck. The crew got away without physical injuries. Video and reports from the scene showed camera equipment and a tripod on the ground near police tape, with the live truck still parked on Solidarity Drive and its front windshield shattered.
The station said the attack appeared to start with slurs aimed at the photographer, who is Black. “It started racial with the cameraman because he’s an African American male,” a witness told CBS Chicago. Another witness said the dog appeared to be used to intimidate the crew before the scene became more chaotic. The names of the journalist and photographer were not released in early reports. Police did not immediately release the names, ages or hometowns of the people taken into custody.
After the attack, police said the men got back into the white truck and left the Museum Campus. About 20 minutes later, CBS Chicago reported, police received calls about the same tow truck near 42nd Street and Western Avenue in Brighton Park. The calls involved people in the truck allegedly pointing a gun at people on the sidewalk. Police later caught up with the truck, and CBS Chicago reported that the occupants ran after the vehicle crashed into a squad car. Police recovered a gun from the truck, the station said. Investigators said the gun was not pointed at the CBS crew during the Museum Campus attack.
Ald. Julia Ramirez, who represents the 12th Ward, said officers arrested three suspects after a pursuit ended near West 36th Street and South California Avenue. Authorities said the people taken into custody were believed to have been fleeing from the earlier incident involving the news crew. No charges had been announced in the first public reports Monday night. Area Three detectives were handling the investigation. Police did not say whether the case was being reviewed as a possible hate crime, and no motive had been formally released.
CBS Chicago issued a statement after the attack, saying the station was relieved its employees were safe. “We are shocked and horrified by this crime and we are grateful that our journalists are safe,” a CBS spokesperson said. The attack drew attention because it happened in daylight near one of the city’s best-known lakefront destinations, where families, tourists and news crews often gather. The Museum Campus includes Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium, with Solidarity Drive running along the lakefront and offering wide views of the skyline.
The attack also raised concern because the crew was working in public while preparing a routine live report. News crews often set up marked vehicles, cameras and tripods in open areas before broadcasts, making them visible to people passing by. In this case, the equipment itself became part of the damage described by police and witnesses. The station said its photographer’s camera was destroyed and the news truck’s windshield was smashed. Officials did not release a damage estimate Monday night.
Police had not announced charges as of the latest early reports, and the case remained under investigation Tuesday. The next step is expected to be a charging decision after detectives and prosecutors review witness statements, police reports, recovered evidence and any video from the Museum Campus and Brighton Park scenes.
Author note: Last updated June 30, 2026.