Incident details
- Date of incident
- June 29, 2026
- Assailant
- Private individual
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
- Equipment damaged
- Actor
- Private individual
Equipment Damage
Police inspect a WBBM-TV photographer’s camera after it was damaged when a group of individuals targeted the station’s photographer and reporter on June 29, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois.
A WBBM-TV photographer was targeted by a group of men who shouted racial slurs at him and damaged his camera while he was reporting in Chicago, Illinois, on June 29, 2026.
The photographer was preparing for a live shot with a reporter near a local planetarium when several men in a white tow truck approached them, the CBS-owned outlet reported. One of the men yelled racial slurs and directed his unleashed German shepherd dog to attack the photographer, who is a Black man.
When the dog did not attack, one man smashed the news vehicle’s windshield with a traffic cone while another damaged the photographer’s camera, the station said.
About 20 minutes later, police responded to a separate incident involving the same tow truck and arrested three suspects. They recovered a firearm during the investigation.
In a later newscast, reporter Jermont Terry said the journalists, who were not identified, were safe. “While they are not physically hurt, what they endured while simply gathering news will impact them for quite some time.”
WBBM-TV reported that the suspects, who have not been identified, may face hate crime charges.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
