Posted on 02/02/2008 7:46:53 PM PST by blam
Gunman kills five women in Chicago store
By Tim Shipman in Chicago
Last Updated: 2:36am GMT 03/02/2008
Five people were shot dead at a women's clothing store in a Chicago suburb on Saturday.
Police evacuated the mall and sealed off the car park after at least five shots were fired
The victims, all women, were killed inside the Lane Bryant store at Brookside Marketplace shopping centre at Tinley Park, south of Chicago.
Police evacuated the mall and sealed off the car park after at least five shots were fired shortly before noon.
It is thought that the shooting occurred after a robbery went wrong and there were reports that the raider had taken some of the victims hostage in the plus-sized clothing store.
Police said that security cameras in the store had allowed them to tentatively identify the man, who is understood to have a history of armed robbery and a murder conviction.
The killer fled the scene after the shooting. A police dogs unit and helicopter were last night working to track down the suspect.
Armed officers also searched neighbouring stores in the area and cars in the parking lot.
Tinley Park Police Sgt TJ Grady said that they were looking for a 5ft 8in tall black man, weighing between 16 and 20 stone and wearing a waist-length black coat, a black knit cap, dark jeans and with braids in his hair.
One victim was was taken to the nearby St James Hospital and Health Care Centres for treatment to gunshot wounds but died later.
Sgt Grady said: "Responding units entered the store and found multiple victims that had been shot and killed.
"No motive has been established. Every store was immediately canvassed and a search by air, too, has given us every indication that the offender has left the scene."
Shoppers said that they were baffled by the motive behind the shooting as it had happened relatively early in the day, about 10.45, while shops would have had quite small amounts of money in their cash registers.
Residents of the predominantly white community of Tinley Park, which describes itself as Chicago's "fastest growing suburb" and has a population of about 58,000, said that they that were shocked by the shooting.
According to FBI crime statistics there was not a single murder in Tinley Park in 2007.
The other violent crime statistics are also low - four sexual assaults, 15 robberies and 38 assaults.
Greg Grace, from nearby Frankfort, who was in the parking lot outside Lane Bryant, said that he saw several stretchers being wheeled into the store. The stretchers were later wheeled out - carrying no wounded survivors.
The mayor, Edward Zabrocki, went to the scene and - looking very shaken - said: "We're very sad about this. We're a victim of our society that we live in."
One witness at the scene described how police officers responded quickly to news of the shootings and hunted the gunman through other stores on the strip mall, with guns drawn and sniffer dogs in tow.
Another witness, Tracy Caccavella, said that she was in a nearby PetSmart store when police burst in with their guns drawn. She said that the officers ordered the store's staff not to let in any more customers before conducting a 20-minute search.
The multiple killing comes a month after nine people died in a shooting at a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska.
Nineteen-year-old Robert Hawkins killed eight people, wounded four, then shot himself at the Westroads Mall on December 5 last year.
It was the deadliest shooting in Nebraska since the rampage of Charles Starkweather, who killed 11 people in 1958.
This mod couldn’t get fat if you paid me. It wasn’t personal.
This may not be the worst written story in a week but it is in the top ten. Actual reporting, as opposed to postalizing the Church of the Left, has become atrocious.
I think the mods handled it appropriately.
My heart goes out to the families of the victims. God bless and comfort them.
Who would have imagined only a few short years ago that clerking in a department store would be a high risk job?
Telegraph is UK (British) paper/site. Stone is standard UK measure of weight.
There’s no crime in Chicago,gun free zone, mayor daly, very happy got 5 this time
At earlier newsconferences today they said that wasn't true. You'll notice in the MSNBC article at that link, they no longer refer to an identified suspect. That store didn't even have a security camera.
They only know this suspect is black etc due to a single witness who said he saw him. Other that that they have nothing to go on.
Just another reason I never leave my house without Mr Smith and Mr Wesson snugly inside my waistband. There is no reason I would ever live any where that makes that a crime.
I agree with you that if you leave your home without an effective means of self-defense, you abdicate responsibility for your own safety. I never leave home without some .44 caliber medication for someone suffering from a social disorder, along with an S&W applicator.
That is the problem with looking at this situation. It is tragic, as one poster has said, but only in the macro sense, that individualism has been so lost in Illinois that citizens are no longer even allowed to take responsibility for their own safety if they want to.
It’s a tragic situation and one that should give the rest of the country pause. Where is Barack Hussein O. from? He was the most liberal representative of the authoritarian enclave of Chicago. Why won’t he try to impose those rules on the rest of us?
It’s hard to feel great sympathy for the individuals, because they should have moved to a State where they could legally defend themselves. In the absence of their doing that, we have to assume they willingly to gave their lives for the principle of pacifism.
However, it is easy to have great fear and trepidation for the rest of us, should the ‘Rats nominate Barack Hussein.
However, when you think about it, it is the 2A that guards all the rest, so this may be the last best time to vote that one issue.
How could this be? Guns are illegal in Chicago.
Lets see, it was a little like this;
Criminals killed innocent people, then the city disarms all law abiding people in order to protect them. The question is whether they are protecting the law abiding citizen or the criminal?
Criminals continue to kill innocent people, and know that nobody other than a usually visible police could shoot back... which means ten minutes free time before police arrive.
The expected liberal response to this type of tragic event is to figure how to further punish the innocent and law abiding when criminals act. It seems that the city sees no other reasonable possible response other than for people to surrender to being a victim when confronted with evil.
What morons.
+1
The description given in our local paper today was " a man wearing a waist length coat and jeans". Interesting as to what was left out. Clearly, it is more important to leave out racial indicators than it is to report facts or give a more detailed description of the at-large perp.
Thanks. I started to doubt that story yesterday, since they didn’t give a name and pic. The way they were presenting it, I expected a car jacking, or home invasion.
That's the Tinley PD and likewise for the PDs in the rest of the neighboring suburbs. For some reason, the victims here went along with the killer's orders to go into the back room. That was a bad move on their part and indicates they wouldn't have decided to defend themselves anyway.
We are creating a society of sheep by having law enforcement and laws that discourage the personal responsibility of self defense.
I suppose if I could have armed body guards within 30 feet of me 24/7 like our media/hollywood/political superstars, I might not care if everyone else could defend themselves or not, but I hope I would not feel that way. In any event, it is today a criminal sport, enabled by our laws and polititions, for open season on our law abiding victims. (not “citizens” since that title requires some personal responsibility.)
Now Now. You must redeem him with love. A film about the perps life would be good for starters. Then the lecture circuit; public office and then retirement on a generous pension paid for by the tax payer. Lastly, full of years and covered with honors he dies and goes to heaven to sit on the right hand of the Lord. It is even rumoured that he may come again and judge the quick and the dead. The poor souls that were shot died in their sins and one should not look too hard for them on the streets of Glory. (Such is present day “morality.”)
No Mister Mayor, you're all victims of anti-gun hysteria which has rendered all law abiding Chicagoans unarmed and helpless potential victims of armed, vicious killers who have no more respect for your self-righteous, feel-good gun bans than they have for human life.
Even animals instinctively know that natural weapons such as sharp teeth, long claws, and poisonous fangs are vitally important to defending their lives, and those who are suitably equipped with what amounts to deadly weapons live in far greater safety from attack than those who aren't. Maybe someday people like you will become as intelligent as wild animals, but I'm not counting on it happening in my lifetime.
Damn straight.
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