Three men with lengthy criminal records, including prior convictions for aggravated kidnapping, attempted murder charges, and aggravated battery with a firearm, allegedly ambushed a CBS News Chicago crew near the Adler Planetarium on Monday night, hurling racial slurs at the cameraman, destroying more than $100,000 in equipment, and leading police on a dangerous vehicle pursuit that ended in a crash.
Jon Twist, 37, of McKinley Park; Rafael Salinas, 29, of Clearing; and William Huerta, 41, of Chicago Ridge now face a combined slate of felony and misdemeanor charges. All three were ordered held in custody on Thursday. Their next court appearance is set for July 8.
The attack unfolded just before 4:30 p.m. as the crew, a reporter and a 54-year-old Black cameraman, sat in their news van preparing for a live report. A tow truck pulled directly in front of their vehicle. What followed, as detailed in a Daily Mail report, was a rapid escalation from racial abuse to property destruction to a high-speed chase through Chicago's streets.
Twist allegedly stepped out of the tow truck with a German shepherd, shouted racial obscenities at the cameraman, and asked the photographer whether he was scared. He then allegedly ordered the dog to attack the cameraman. The dog did not comply. Twist kicked the animal.
The cameraman, fearing for his life, grabbed a foldable lawn chair and struck Twist. Twist then allegedly approached the second CBS employee, the reporter, and asked if they, too, were scared, before chasing a crew member with the dog.
Meanwhile, Salinas allegedly ran from the tow truck to where the crew had been standing and threw the camera equipment to the ground. Prosecutors say the damage exceeded $100,000. The crew jumped onto a sidewalk near the lakeshore and called 911.
When they returned to their van, they found the windshield shattered. Neither crew member was physically injured.
Police circulated a description of the tow truck. A beat cop traveling westbound on West 43rd Street spotted the vehicle and recognized it from a prior alert for assault with a weapon, a detail that raises its own questions about how long these men had been on law enforcement's radar.
Officers observed Huerta driving at high speed, blowing through stop signs, running red lights, and swerving into oncoming traffic. They activated emergency lights and gave chase.
The pursuit grew more dangerous. Huerta allegedly brake-checked the pursuing officers, causing a rear-end collision. He then put the tow truck in reverse and drove directly at officers. The chase ended when the truck slammed into a concrete pole near the 3600 block of South California Avenue in the Brighton Park neighborhood.
Four people fled the truck on foot. Three, Twist, Salinas, and Huerta, were apprehended. A fourth occupant has not been publicly identified. During the arrest, Salinas allegedly slapped a uniformed officer in the face with an open hand.
A loaded high-powered rifle was recovered from the tow truck.
Prosecutors filed a stack of charges across all three suspects. Twist faces a felony count of criminal damage to property, a misdemeanor count of resisting an officer, and a hate crime charge. Salinas faces a felony count of aggravated battery to a peace officer, a felony count of criminal damage between $10,000 and $100,000, two misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct, and a misdemeanor count of resisting police. Huerta was charged with a felony count of fleeing and attempting to elude officers, various traffic citations, and several misdemeanor counts related to aggravated assault of a state of Illinois employee, reckless driving, and leaving the scene.
No charges related to the loaded rifle have been publicly disclosed.
The rap sheets behind these three men tell a story that Chicago's residents have heard too many times, repeat offenders cycling through the justice system and landing back on the streets with the freedom to escalate.
Twist served seven years in prison after a 2006 aggravated kidnapping conviction. He also served time for a towing scam in which he preyed on accident victims. Court records obtained by CBS News show he has an active order of protection against him for threatening to burn a woman's house down.
Huerta was previously charged with attempted first-degree murder. Those charges were dropped. He served six years in prison for aggravated battery with a firearm following a 2003 conviction. Salinas had an active warrant against him as recently as May for fleeing from police after a hit and run.
All three men have previously been accused of using tow trucks to commit further crimes.
Read that again. Three men, each with violent felony histories, each with documented ties to criminal activity involving tow trucks, were all together in the same vehicle on a Monday afternoon, free to drive up to a news crew, shout racial slurs, destroy equipment, and lead police on a chase with a loaded rifle in the cab.
The facts laid out in court raise several questions that deserve answers. The beat cop who spotted the tow truck recognized it from a prior assault-with-a-weapon alert. What was that prior alert? How long had that truck been flagged? Why were these men still operating freely?
Huerta's attempted first-degree murder charge was dropped. On what basis? Salinas had an active warrant. Why hadn't it been served? And what happened to the unidentified fourth person who climbed out of the truck and vanished?
The discrepancy in damage figures, prosecutors claiming more than $100,000 in destruction while Salinas's charge tier covers damage between $10,000 and $100,000, may be a routine charging decision. But it deserves clarification, particularly if it affects sentencing exposure.
This was not a random encounter that spiraled. The hate crime charge against Twist reflects prosecutors' assessment that racial animus drove the confrontation. The cameraman, a 54-year-old professional doing his job in broad daylight near one of Chicago's most recognizable landmarks, was targeted with slurs and threatened with a dog before the destruction began.
The loaded rifle in the truck puts the entire episode in a different light. These men were armed. The cameraman defended himself with a lawn chair.
Chicago's leaders have spent years talking about public safety, equity, and accountability. Here is a case that tests all three. Three men with violent records, active warrants, and documented histories of using their vehicles as instruments of crime attacked a news crew in a racially motivated assault, and they were free to do it because the system had already failed to hold them at every prior turn.
When repeat violent offenders walk free long enough to commit hate crimes in broad daylight, the problem isn't the law on the books. It's the refusal to enforce it.
