Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Police in Orland Park are searching for a gunman who shot and killed a man near the food court inside the Orland Square Mall on Monday night, Deputy Police Chief Joseph Mitchell said.
Investigators don’t know the motive for the shooting and believe the shooter knew the victim. Mitchell said the shooting was an “isolated incident.” Orland Park is southwest of Chicago.
Police responded to a 6:45 p.m. call of shots fired in the mall near the food court. Detectives recovered numerous shell casings in the food court. The victim stumbled away and was found near an escalator near H&M, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died.
Detectives are reviewing surveillance video from inside the mall, and say the shooter fled the mall heading east. Police were searching the area, and shoppers were escorted out of the vicinity. The suspect is described as a male, about 6 feet tall, wearing black clothing and blue jeans.
Mitchell did not release the name or the age of the person shot.
Rana Alkilani was shopping with her four children when they heard gunshots.
The mother grabbed her children and the family ran.
“We were panicking,” she said. “It’s hell.”
The family huddled together in the cold outside Cheesecake Factory waiting for Alkilani’s husband to pick them up.
The mother worried about how the incident would affect her children.
“You feel like you’re going to die,” she said.
“I heard the shots,” said Oscar Arribe, of Oak Forest. Arribe, who ducked for cover, described the situation as a lot of commotion and chaos.
Diana Serna said she had been barricaded in the J.C. Penney store with her family for about 40 minutes during the incident.
Multiple agencies responded to the shooting, according to a spokesperson from the Orland Park Fire Department.
Christina Pelt, a worker at Victoria’s Secret, said she heard seven gunshots just before 6:30 p.m. She said heard a co-worker yell, “Call 911!”
“We heard some pops but we didn’t see anything,” Pelt said.
She said she then led about 30 customers to a back office in her store. She said they locked themselves in the office for about 45 minutes.
“You would never expect this,” Pelt said. “There was a lot of crying and yelling.”
Pelt said police eventually told them they were safe to leave the mall.
Dozens of people were still leaving the mall late Monday as police blocked off the entrances and formed a perimeter around the building.
Groups of people stood inside the Macy’s store, waiting for rides and keeping warm.
A Cinnabon employee who shivered in his car as it warmed up said there were several dozen people in the food court when the shots rang out. He and several other employees ran out a back exit.
He saw a large crowd flooding out of the Macy’s when he got to the parking lot.
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