TINLEY PARK, Ill. (CBS) ― The search continued Sunday for the gunman who shot and killed five women during a robbery at a Tinley Park clothing store, then disappeared after walking out the front door.
Meantime, autopsies will be performed on the bodies of the five victims.
CBS 2’s Rafael Romo reports that as the investigation continued Sunday, there was still no word on exactly how the gunman got away unnoticed. Police were reviewing surveillance videos from several stores at the strip mall, but unfortunately the Lane Bryant store where the women were killed did not have any cameras.
The shooting has not only devastated the victims’ families, but also Tinley Park and the surrounding communities.
The shooting happened just before 11 a.m. A gunman took five women into a back room at the Lane Bryant store, including one employee, and shot and killed all of them before fleeing.
Tinley Park Police Sgt. T.J. Grady said, “The motive in this case was a robbery and that at some point it went rather poorly.”
Police launched a manhunt as soon as they arrived at the scene, going from store to store finding only shoppers who were confused and in panic.
O’Connell said a bystander told officers that he had seen a stocky black man, about 5-foot-9, who was wearing a black winter coat, a knit cap and dark pants.
“We are very comfortable that the offender is out of the area. We had an immediate search of the area immediately after the incident was reported. We had an officer respond within a minute,” O’Connell said.
Attempts to find him with dogs and a helicopter equipped with infrared sensors also failed, authorities said.
Tinley Park Police Chief Mike O’Connell said the victims ages ranged from 22 to 37; four were from the Chicago suburbs and one was from South Bend, Ind.
Family members identified one of the victims as Carrie Hudek Chiuso of Frankfort. She was a teen counselor and a 1993 graduate of Homewood Flossmoor High School.
“Carrie was deeply loved by faculty and staff,” said school spokesman Dave Thieman in a statement. “She had a real touch with students. The entire H-F family is deeply saddened.”
Several stores were put on lockdown just minutes after the shooting.
Lupe Olmos was shopping at the Brookside Marketplace Shopping Center when it happened. “I’m in the dressing room and then somebody gets a call in the dressing room that she reports that she’s the wife of a manager that there’s a shooter on the loose and that the store is getting locked down. And at that I’m thinking ‘Holy cow. I’m gonna stay put, I’m not gonna move anywhere. Everybody’s in a panic,’” Olmos said.
In a Target store across the parking lot from Lane Bryant, terrified customers were herded to the front as police with pistols and rifles drawn went up and down the aisles and into storerooms searching for the gunman.
“I was so scared I couldn’t think,” said Selena Kujawa, who had just entered the store with her 5-year-old son when it was locked down. After about an hour, customers were told to leave.
“They told us to get in our cars and get out of here,” Kujawa said.
Police began allowing some shoppers into parts of the strip mall later Saturday, but had cordoned off the Lane Bryant store, which remained closed on Sunday.
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/tinley.park.shooting.2.644633.html