WLS Channel 7 - News - "Armed Gunman Inside Channel 7 Building" (Part 2, 1990)

Here's Part 2 of WLS Channel 7's news coverage of an armed robbery suspect who hid out for 40 hours at the 190 North State Street building that houses the station.

This part begins with a report from WGN Channel 9 on the situation, read by anchor Roseanne Tellez. She and co-anchor Robert Jordan then introduce Dan Roan's Instant Replay.

Then the tape returns to WLS's own Eyewitness News coverage on their 10pm edition, with anchor Jim Rosenfield (who later worked in New York at WNBC Channel 4 and WCBS Channel 2) introducing reporter Paul Meincke who's standing outside the Channel 7 studios. Paul spoke to First District County Police Captain Jim Maher(?) about the situation as it stood at the time of this newscast. Video footage of police and K-9 searches around the parking garage of the nearby Theatre South Park building is shown as Paul mentioned that a resident of the high-rise Dearborn apartment buildings saw someone, earlier in the evening (around 9:00pm), breaking glass on the 12th floor of the WLS building, indicating that he was trying to escape, but couldn't because of mesh screen on the window. Police went to the 12th floor and saw broken glass and blood on the glass; this means that as of this broadcast, the suspect was still somewhere inside the 190 North State Street building.

Co-anchor Sylvia Perez recaps the timeline of the events, which began on Saturday, August 25th around 10am and knocked the station off the air for several hours. A taped report from Sylvia is then run, starting with a shot of police searching in and around the Channel 7 studios for the suspect, including backstage shots of the Eyewitness News set (and a few short shots of the Ikegami cameras - presumably HK-312C - that WLS was using at the time). Sgt. Frank Srabia of the Chicago Police Department is interviewed in the WLS control room about the case, explaining he thought the suspect escaped the building a few times. A mug shot of suspect John Fidel Kane is shown, and a brief shot of Lou Malnati's Pizzeria (which was robbed by the suspect and his brother, 31-year-old James Kane) is shown. James was apprehended, but John slipped into the Channel 7 studios, not threatening any station employees but pointing a gun at Chicago Police Officer Phil Doyce who is interviewed about the incident. The building was then evacuated as the first of several police and K-9 searches were launched. Segments of the previous night's coverage from the Sears Tower (with Sylvia and Dick Johnson) is aired, along with a snippet of Chuck Goudie's interview with WLS President and General Manager Joe Ahern. Not even the suspect's sisters' showing up at the building to convince him to turn himself in has made a dent at the point of this airing.

Jim then starts to read a story about a group of dependents of American diplomats in Iraq crossing the desert to Turkey before the tape cuts out.

The tape then resumes at the end of Paul Meincke's latest live remote, with him telling Jim and Sylvia that this was not a hostage situation, but the search for the suspect was still on.

Jim then starts to read an item about a movie asking the question, "Who Is Darkman?" before the tape cuts out again.

The tape then resumes as Jim introduces another live remote from Paul Meincke outside the Channel 7 studios; at this point, there was still no sign of the suspect, though police and K-9 units were working their way up the building. He reports that the broken glass came from a 10th floor office. Sylvia then does another recap of the events of the past 36 hours (from the point of this newscast); more footage of police searching the Theatre South Park parking garage is shown, as is more footage from the previous night's coverage from the Sears Tower transmitting facilities. She then promises to keep viewers posted on any further information as it comes.

They then say good night, with Jim announcing, "Sports Final is next," before the tape cuts out.

This aired on local Chicago TV on Sunday, August 26th 1990.

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