ABC 7 window hit with rocks during 4 p.m. newscast

CPD investigating; adds to a string of bizarre incidents at the station over the years

Yet another bizarre incident occurred outside of the studios of ABC 7 – this time during a newscast.

At the start of the 4 p.m. newscast on the ABC-owned station Thursday, a male suspect threw a rock at the window of WLS-TV’s 190 North State Street Studios, shattering the glass. He picked up the rock and threw it again, damaging another section of glass, and then walked away. The incident was captured in clear video from cameras outside the station’s studios.

Thankfully, no one was injured.

I was watching the newscast while working on an earlier article when I heard what sounded like a loud boom – or something resembling a gunshot a few minutes into the show. Then another about a minute later. Rob Elgas and Judy Hsu – the anchors on the desk at the time the incidents took place, described it on air as light bulbs exploding in the studio but later was confirmed to be from vandalism. The incident was widely reported on social media and the station’s viewers called the station to see if Elgas and Hsu were okay.

The man who threw the rocks is described as a white male weighing about 150 pounds and having blond-ish hair. Chicago Police is investigating; no one is in custody at the time this is being written.

This is the latest in a string of bizarre incidents occurring in recent years outside the station’s streetside studios. Last October, a car was doing donuts before the station’s 10 p.m. newscast. In August 2020, a mob broke into the Potbelly Sandwich Shop next door while the station was on the air reporting during a night of vandalism and looting downtown. And perhaps in the most infamous incident, a car crashed into the streetside studios during a 10 p.m. newscast in December 2007 while anchor Ravi Baichwal was on the air. A suspect was arrested.

In August 1990, WLS-TV was forced off the air several times during a two-day period after an armed murder suspect somehow got into the building.

This incident comes several days after a reporter for CBS affiliate KMOV St. Louis was nearly caught in a gun battle while in the city as reported by FTV Live. Two years ago, a passerby pointed a gun at a Fox 32 (WFLD-TV) cameraman during a live shot in the River North neighborhood. A suspect was never found.