And, he chose Chicago so as to avoid a confrontation with a legally armed citizen, IMHO.
Here’s a prediction: when caught and identified, he’ll be a repeat violent offender on probation.
I have no problem with the death penalty.
Well, OK, Just one. It will take too long to snuff the scumbag.
Reminds me of the Richard Speck killings. I lived not far from where it happened.
Are malls now shooting galleries? Why not have metal detectors at mall entrances? Or (much as I hate it) someone to look in women’s purses and men’s pockets. I’m angry at the current practice, at certain stores, of only looking in women’s purses. Men’s pockets need to be looked in, too. A surprising number of men carry knives. How much could a metal detector, and a guard at each entrance, cost?
When I first heard about this, I figured it would turn out to be an ex-husband or ex-boyfriend of one of the women, not a stranger.
His physique should make him stand out in a crowd.
This is trully heartbreaking...I (like you from the other thread) thought that this was somehow related to one of the woman who worked there. My gut instinct was that this was a jilted boyfriend/husband/babydaddy who went nuts. Sadly, alot of the young girls I have worked with have had alot of ‘drama’ in their lives. This scenario is all the scarier...the randomness of it...and the premeditiation (a woman’s clothing shop early in the day). This makes sense that the police did not confirm that there was a survior (protecting her). Any leads or other info in the Chicago news?
I hate to say it, but I don’t go into any public place nowadays without having two exits in mind, and at least a couple of decent hiding places.
UPDATE
Did 911 call set shooter off?
TINLEY PARK | Sources say manager’s phoning for help may have led to the massacre of the 5 bound women
February 9, 2008
BY FRANK MAIN AND ANNIE SWEENEY Staff Reporters
Police are investigating if the robber who killed five woman and wounded a sixth at a Lane Bryant clothing store in Tinley Park shot them after catching the store manager making a 911 call on her cell phone, police sources said Friday.
One of the slain women, store manager Rhoda McFarland, made the 911 call from the back room Feb. 2 after she and the other five women were bound with duct tape, one source said.
» Click to enlarge image
Dive teams from local area fire departments search retention ponds across the parking lot from the Lane Bryant store at Brookside Marketplace in Tinley Park on Friday.
(Joseph P. Meier/STNG)
At least some of the women were found with panties over their heads, sources said.
The killer heard an emergency dispatcher speaking to McFarland, became enraged and started shooting the women in the head, one source said.
A 33-year-old store employee survived the ordeal with a neck wound and is now in protective custody. She has told police about the events leading to the shootings and provided a description of the killer, who entered the women’s clothing store near 191st and Harlem about 10 a.m. posing as a deliveryman, law enforcement sources said.
The man ordered the women into the back room, bound them with duct tape and put them facedown on the floor, sources said. The other victims included customers Connie Woolfolk, Jennifer Bishop, Sarah Szafranski and Carrie Hudek Chiuso.
“The intent of the killer was to keep robbing people as they came into the store,” one source said.
McFarland called 911 from her cell phone, and the Will County Sheriff’s Department answered, transferring the call to Tinley Park police. The killer heard a dispatcher asking McFarland questions because the volume was turned up on her cell phone, sources said.
“She tried to close the phone, and he shoots her,” one source said. “Then he shoots the rest of them.”
Police have recovered .40-caliber bullet casings from the shooting, sources said.
On Friday, members of the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force were searching for the murder weapon in a retention pond near the store and around the ramps leading to Interstate 80 at LaGrange Road and Harlem Avenue.
The gunman has been described as black, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10 and 230 to 260 pounds — “large framed, with weight proportionate to his height.” He had three to five cornrows at the top of his forehead and a strand with green beads over his right cheek, police say.
Anyone with information about the slayings was asked to call a 24-hour hotline at (708) 444-5394. A $55,000 reward has been offered.
Contributing: Dan Rozek, Kara Spak
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/785630,CST-NWS-shoot09.article#
Update
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-tinley_park_killings_bothfeb09,1,7109424.story
chicagotribune.com
2 victims in Tinley Park shooting entered store after robbery started, source says
Tinley Park killings came after 911 call, sources say
By Matthew Walberg
Tribune reporter
February 9, 2008
Two of the six victims in last week’s deadly shooting at a Tinley Park clothing store entered the business after the gunman had announced a holdup, a source said Friday.
Investigators recovered shell casings at the scene, the source said. A second source said the weapon used was a .40 caliber handgun.
Excerpt
It didn’t take long for JJ to get his puss in front of a camera.
Jackson: ‘Someone knows who did this’
(http://www.southtownstar.com/news/tpshooting/787009,0210jackson.article)
February 10, 2008
By Jim Hook, Staff writer
The Rev. Jesse Jackson renewed his call for an assault weapons ban today and urged the public to help find the man who shot six women inside a Tinley Park clothing store, killing five of them.
“Someone knows who did this,” Jackson said after laying a wreath near a makeshift memorial honoring the victims of the shooting Feb. 2. “Silence is betrayal. If someone knows something about the shooting, you need to come forward.
“It is your moral obligation to let us know. We offer prayers to the grieving,” he said. “We need to find who did this.”
Jackson urged anyone with information to contact local or state police or Operation Push.
“We are working with local law enforcement agencies to solve this horrendous crime,” he said. “As a nation, we need to stop the escalation of gun violence in this country.”
Jackson cited recent shootings in Ohio and Missouri as evidence of increased gun violence as well as easy access to guns.
Flanked by Ronald Holt, whose son, Blair, was shot and killed last year in Chicago, Jackson said more than 30,000 people are killed by gun violence each year across the country.
Tinley Park police said the investigation is continuing. Police distributed a sketch of the shooter Saturday. A physical description of the man was provided by a sixth woman who survived being shot in a back room of the Lane Bryant store. She remains in protective custody.