TINLEY PARK, Ill. - A gunman fatally shot five women in a robbery at a store in a suburban Chicago strip mall and fled Saturday, prompting police to sweep through neighboring shops as terrified customers watched.
The victims were killed at a Lane Bryant clothing store at the Brookside Marketplace, police Sgt. T.J. Grady said. Officers found the victims at the back of the store after getting a 911 call around 10:45 a.m., Grady said.
Grady said robbery was believed to be the motive. Police searched for the gunman using dogs and a helicopter equipped with infrared sensors but concluded he left the stores off Interstate 80 southwest of downtown Chicago.
In a Target store across the parking lot from Lane Bryant, terrified customers were herded to the front as police with pistols and rifles drawn went up and down the aisles and into storerooms searching for the gunman.
"I was so scared I couldn't think," said Selena Kujaw, of nearby Mokena, who had just entered the store with her 5-year-old son when it was locked down. After about an hour, customers were told to leave.
"They told us to get in our cars and get out of here," Kujawa said.[/b]
