Woman Dies After Shooting At Mag Mile Store
(CBS) -- The woman shot Friday inside a store on the Mag Mile by a man who then turned the gun on himself has died, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office confirms.
Police say the man walked up to a cosmetics counter on the second floor of Nordstrom, 55 E. Grand Ave., around 8:30 p.m. and shot his ex-girlfriend, a seasonal employee, before turning the gun on himself. The woman was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead at around 4 p.m. Saturday, the ME's office tells CBS 2.
She was identified as Nadia Ezaldein, 22, of Hialeah, Fla. Ezaldein was a student at the University of Chicago but was not currently enrolled, a spokesman for the university said.
Earlier, the Cook County Medical Examiner identified the gunman as 31-year-old Marcus Dee.
The victim's family says Ezaldein had been physically and mentally abused by Dee, even after they broke up a year ago. Family also says that Friday was her birthday.
The shooting triggered a stampede for the exits from Nordstrom and other stories in the upscale North Bridge mall. Some said they emerged from dressing rooms to find people shouting and running for the exits.
"The staff said to just run -- there's an emergency," said student You Li, 24, of Omaha, Neb., who was on a Black Friday shopping trip with her mother.
The department manager and other nearby employees who witnessed the initial shooting immediately hid in a storage room, fearing for their lives, until police told them it was safe to come out.
Outside of labeling this an act of domestic violence, police haven't said what motivated the gunman.
The Nordstrom store remained closed on Saturday. A spokeswoman for the Seattle based company said while the business reviews its safety plans, there may not be one to prevent a situation like this.
"Our number one priority is sending our best wishes to our employee and her family, thinking about all of the employees and customers who were impacted here… so business is not part of that conversation right now or part of that decision," said Nordstrom spokeswoman Tara Darrow.