3 Questioned In Bloodbath At Store Near Altgeld Gardens
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Three people are being held by police in connection with a shootout this week at a store near the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex on the Far South Side.
As WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, the shootout happened around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at The Connect, a store that sold cell phones, jewelry, and assorted general merchandise on 130th Street and Langley Avenue.
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At least one of several assailants exchanged gunfire with a security guard at the store.
As of early Friday, no one had been charged, but police were interviewing three persons of interest.
A store employee, Dion Williams, was outraged by the shooting.
"It's crazy. This is something that didn't have to happen," he said. "Innocent people lost their lives for no reason whatsoever."
Among those killed in the shootout was Ihab Arafeh, 46, of Lansing, a father of five who came to the store Wednesday night, as he did on many other occasions, to deliver cell phones and supplies.
Arafeh's son, Zaid Ihab Arafeh, said his father lived to provide for his family. He worked six days a week as the owner of his own cell phone and cell phone accessory wholesale distributorship.
Ihab Arafeh's job brought him to The Connect around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. During his delivery stop, several men entered the store and opened fire.
"We heard it was not a robbery, which was sick." Zaid said. "They just go in there pointlessly shooting. … It was just, like, a massacre inside that store."
Also killed in the attack were two other men associated with the store – the security guard, Michael Banks, 30, of Hobart, Ind., and an employee, Weam "Weezy" Salem, 25, according to reports.
One of the suspects in the attack, Alex Spikes, 17, was later pronounced dead at Roseland Community Hospital. He suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
Another 17-year-old boy, who was a suspect, and a woman in her 30s, who had been a customer at the store, were wounded in the shooting. The boy, who was shot in the thigh, is being questioned, police said.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
