Damia Smith, 15, Becomes Fifth Victim To Die After Jason Nightengale's Shooting Spree Last Month, Authorities Say
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 15-year-old girl has become the fifth person to die as a result of a shooting spree that spanned the city last month.
Police said Jason Nightengale shot Damia Smith while she was in the back seat of a car while her mother drove in the 10300 block of South Halsted Street on Saturday, Jan. 9. Damia was the sixth person Nightengale shot that day of a total of seven, police said.
The Morgan Park High School student was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital at 3:57 p.m. Tuesday.
The shooting spree began just beyond the doors of the parking garage at the Regents Park building, 5035 S. East End Ave., at 1:50 p.m. that day.
Police said Nightingale slipped in and killed University of Chicago Ph.D. student Yiran Fan, 30, who was just sitting behind the wheel of his car.
Across the street and a block to the north at The Barclay condo complex, 4940 S. East End Ave., police said Nightengale shot two women, killing doorwoman Aisha Johnson, 46, and wounding a 77-year-old woman who was getting her mail.
From there, he stole a red Toyota – demanding a man's keys at gunpoint on the 19th floor of an Indian Village residential high-rise – before making his way south.
Nightengale ended up at the AK Food Mart, 9307 S. Halsted St. Inside, police said he shot and killed Anthony Faulkner Jr., 20, about an hour and 45 minutes after killing Johnson. He also shot the 81-year-old clerk, leaving her in critical condition.
Police said Nightengale went on to shoot a Damia ten blocks south on Halsted Street, and then drove back by the AK Food Mart where he fired at officers investigating his earlier shooting but did not strike anyone.
It ended up being a ShotSpotter call that alerted police that Nightengale had made his way to all the way to Evanston.
Police said he took Marta Torres, 61, hostage and shot her in the neck at the IHOP at Howard Street and Asbury Avenue – the Evanston extension of Western Avenue. She died of her injuries one week later.
Evanston police officers shot and killed Nightengale outside a Dollar General store on Howard Street and Western Avenue.
Video released by Evanston police last week shows both dashboard camera footage and body camera footage of the end of the shooting spree. The footage shows Nightengale fleeing from police, running across Howard Street, before officers open fire. Nightengale collapsed just outside the Dollar General store.
During the chase, an officer can be heard yelling at Nightengale.
"Get down on the ground. Come here! Get down on the ground right now!" the officer shouts.
***WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC FOOTAGE***
The videos show several officers fired at Nightengale, although it's unclear how many officers actually hit him.
Surveillance video shows Nightengale driving off in the red Toyota, but on police radio, his vehicle description was inconsistent – in one instance being described as a gray car with tinted windows.
The victims were apparently shot at random – from the Indian Village district in East Hyde Park-Kenwood, to South Halsted Street in the Brainerd and Fernwood communities, and finally to the line between the West Rogers Park neighborhood and Evanston many miles away.
Nightengale, 32, had no apparent motive. But he hinted to his plans on his now-disabled social media accounts. He documented his own reckless driving on video and said he was going to be on TV.
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