Gun Goes Off In Hyatt Hotel Lobby
CHICAGO (CBS) -- In the middle of a crowed lobby, in a busy four-star hotel, guests hear a gunshot.
Now police search for the gun owner and people at the hotel are shaking their heads in disbelief.
CBS 2's Chelsea Irving reports from the Hyatt Regency on Wacker Drive.
Things back to normal but it was a very different story earlier in the day.
That's when people in the lobby heard a gunshot.
Three women were hurt and police searching for a suspect.
"I heard a loud bang. I'm not sure what it was. Everyone was freaking out asking what was going on and I had no idea," says one person inside the lobby.
It was an unexpected and frightening sound to hear in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Chicago police say three people suffered minor leg injuries after a 24-year-old hotel guest tried to show a friend a gun.
But the weapon fired when he dropped it on the lobby floor.
"An individual who spent the night at the hotel was checking out. At which time a firearm fell out of his pocket, onto the floor, striking the tile," says Commander Michael Pigott. "Three individuals were struck fragments, potentially from the tile."
The suspect then took off and a police pursuit followed.
His gun was found a short time later in a trash can several blocks away.
Police know the identity of the suspect, who left his driver's license at the lobby desk.
They say he's a 24-year-old from the south suburbs.
"It just heightens knowledge that that's where we are today in our society," says a woman at the hotel attending a conference.
Many noted the sad coincidence of talking about a shooter in a school while hearing gunfire.
The Hyatt has released a statement.
The hotel says all of its guests and staff are safe, that operations are back to normal and that they are cooperating with police.