Official: Man Shot Stepdaughter, Self Outside Elmhurst Hospital
ELMHURST, Ill. (CBS) -- A man allegedly shot his stepdaughter in the face in the parking lot of Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Wednesday night, and then shot and killed himself in his car while she was in treatment at the hospital, officials alleged.
As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported, police called what happened an isolated domestic incident, but the hospital was placed on lockdown for a time.
Police said, around 7 p.m., officers responded to reports of a gunman in the hospital's west parking lot, after 44-year-old Imelda Shek came into the emergency room with a gunshot wound.
Within minutes, officers found her stepfather, 73-year-old Robert Shek, with a gunshot wound in a car in the parking lot. Paramedics brought him into the emergency room, where he died a short time later, police said.
Imelda Shek later was transferred to Loyola University Medical Center in Mawyood, where she was being treated for her wounds.
Elmhurst Hospital ShootingAuthorities say a man shot his stepdaughter and then himself outside Elmhurst Hospital Wednesday night. Authorities have an update right now. More: http://2pvMf2C
Posted by CBS Chicago on Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Cellphone video that CBS 2 received shows police approaching a car in the parking lot near the emergency room entrance – inside which the man shot and killed himself.
In the chaos of it all, the hospital responded as if there were an active shooter as a precaution, until hospital staff and police determined it was an isolated incident.
De Mar spoke with a witness and patient who were inside the hospital and were unsure of what was going on.
"We heard a gunshot. There was only like security from the hospital at that time out there. The next thing you know, like 30 seconds later, Elmhurst PD came, guns drawn, asking the suspect: 'Please drop the gun! Drop the gun! Drop the gun!'" said witness Tony DiCarlo. "And he was already, you know, self-inflicted wound."
"It kind of got chaotic. We don't know where to go or what to do at the time, and then the alarm went off again for it, and we were brought back to a room – like a bunch of families into one room in like the surgery area, and we were told to close the door, and if the active shooter had come, to put the bed up against the door," said witness Erica Kuschel.
Police said they did not know the motive or what led to the shooting. The shooting remained under investigation Thursday morning.