Two Shot Inside Harlem Irving Plaza Parking Garage
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 30-year-old man was in police custody in northwest suburban Norridge, in connection with a shooting that left two people wounded Thursday in the parking garage of the Harlem-Irving Plaza shopping mall, but police still had some loose ends to tie up.
Norridge Police Chief Jim Jobe said those wounded are cousins, a 36-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman. The gunman was said to have been the woman's boyfriend.
Jobe said the incident began Thursday morning as an argument on the West Side of Chicago; apparently, the boyfriend took the woman's four- and six-year-old children shopping at the mall, using her car, without her permission.
The facts surrounding the earlier argument are unclear -- including how the woman, her cousin, and other family members found him shortly after 1 p.m. in the parking garage.
In the confrontation that followed, a dozen shots were fired. Jobe said the 36-year-old man was shot once in the groin, and the girlfriend was shot four times; in the head, shoulder and wrists.
Jobe said the gunman then left the children behind, climbed into another car, and sped off. He was arrested minutes later by Chicago police officers, who pulled him over at Fullerton and Cicero Avenues. Officers retrieved a gun from the car, but Jobe said police do not know yet if it was the gun used in the shootings.
Both of those wounded were stabilized by doctors at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, and Jobe said the victims spoke to detectives.
Although several shoppers witnessed the brawl and the shootings, Jobe said no one else was endangered, and the mall remained open and fully operational.