Three men are facing charges after police say they attacked a local CBS affiliate reporter and photographer in Chicago.
A judge ordered Rafael Salinas, 29, Jon Twist, 37, and William Huerta, 41, to be detained Thursday. Cook County Jail records indicate they all face at least one felony charge and several misdemeanors.
Twist is also charged with a hate crime.
Prosecutors argued the three men are a “serious threat” to public safety, the Chicago Tribune reported. The incident happened on June 29.
Investigators said the two CBS2 journalists were preparing their live shot near the Adler Planetarium. They were reportedly working on a story about the heat wave, the Chicago Tribune said.
Prosecutors said Twist approached the news crew from a white tow truck while yelling the N-word at the photographer, who is Black. He also kept asking if “he was scared.”
Twist then told his German shepherd to attack the photographer, according to Block Club Chicago. The dog circled the photographer but didn’t attack him.
“I think he was trying to…intimidate him, make him scared by having the dog approach first,” a witness told CBS News.
Prosecutors said Twist kicked the dog before commanding it to attack the reporter. The photographer picked up a folding lawn chair and struck Twist. BCC said he managed to avoid getting attacked.
The photographer then called 911, as the reporter watched their equipment get destroyed.
Salinas, who was in the tow truck, got out and threw the camera to the ground. He reportedly caused about $100,000 in damage.
Surveillance footage also shows Twist smashing the news truck’s windshield, causing an estimated $1,500 in damage, according to BCC.
“They were saying, ‘Leave the dog alone,’ and I just feel like maybe the scene got more chaotic than they were expecting, and I feel like the only thing they thought to do was to just cause as much damage as they could and leave,” a witness told CBS News.
Prosecutors said Huerta drove the tow truck away after someone reported an individual with a weapon. Officers later reported seeing Huerta drive into oncoming traffic, disregarding traffic laws, as they led officers on a chase.
BCC reported that a rifle was recovered from the truck.
Witnesses told CBS News they were visiting Chicago when they saw the attack unfold.
“They just were trying to do anything they could to scare them unnecessarily. It came out of nowhere,” one witness said.
Prosecutors did not specify why the trio targeted the news team. The reporter and photographer have not been identified.
“We didn’t see any guns in that moment, but to know that it escalated to that or could of been that is just terrifying,” a witness told CBS News.
The journalist told investigators that hearing the racial slur was demeaning and threatening, and it made him think of his family’s stories of lynch mobs in the South.
Prosecutors also noted that the incident occurred in the middle of the day.
“This was at approximately 4:30 in the afternoon … on a busy summer day,” prosecutors said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “There are so many people out in Chicago, not just the citizens of Chicago, but that is a highly touristy area. They posed a danger to everybody who was out in the area.”
The men’s public defender argued that there were no third-party witnesses to corroborate the news crews’ story, the Chicago Tribune said.
Twist is reportedly married to an African-American woman and has three children. Huerta owns a construction company, and Salinas coaches his kids’ baseball teams, according to the public defender.
The news station released a statement regarding the situation.
“We are shocked and horrified by this crime, and we are grateful that our journalists are safe,” a CBS spokesperson said in a statement to BCC.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to Chicago police for the report but has not heard back.
