Police shot and killed a man suspected of a four-hour shootout that started with the death of a college student in a Chicago parking lot and ended with a hostage situation at a suburban IHOP.
Jason Nightengale, 32, led the Chicago police in a chase through the city on Saturday afternoon, in which they responded to seven shootings incidents before being killed in a shootout with Evanston police around 5 pm, officials said. Three people died and four were injured, aged between 15 and 81 years.
“We are responding to the scene as these crimes happen, obtaining information, and again, he goes to the next one as we try to follow up on what happened earlier,” said Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown during a news conference on Saturday night .
Authorities did not say what may have motivated Nightengale.
The spree started just before 2 pm on Saturday, when Nightengale is suspected of entering a parking lot on the south side of Chicago. Police said he shot and killed a University of Chicago student sitting in his parked car.
Nightengale then entered an apartment building a few blocks away “just at random,” said Brown, and started shooting. A security guard who was sitting at a table was killed. A 77-year-old woman retrieving her correspondence was shot in the head. She is in critical condition.
He then went to another apartment building, pointed a gun at a person he knew and demanded that person’s car keys. He then went on to use the stolen vehicle for the rest of the afternoon shooting, police said.
About an hour later, at 3:45 pm, Nightengale entered a convenience store where he attempted a robbery and shot and killed a 20-year-old man. An 81-year-old woman who was a client is in a critical condition.
At 5 pm, about a block from the store, a 15-year-old girl was shot in the head while driving in the back seat of a car driven by a family member. She is in critical condition.
Nightengale then returned to the convenience store where police were investigating the incident and fired more shots, hitting a police car, before fleeing again, officials said.
In his briefing, Brown described the difficulty that officers had in following Nightengale’s erratic movements.
“When you hear this whole story, it looks like you have a crystal ball of what he’s doing next, and we all know that we don’t have a crystal ball where he’s going next, nor do we have that in any [police observation device] cameras, “said Brown.” When we put it all together, he’s here in Evanston. “
Nightengale drove to the suburb of Evanston, about 20 miles away, and opened fire on a CVS, before running into an IHOP restaurant and taking a woman hostage. He shot her in the neck, leaving her in critical condition, police said. Evanston police then exchanged shots with Nightengale in the parking lot, where he died.
Shortly after, Evanston police tweeted a photo of the gun they said they had recovered from Nightengale.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Nightengale posted a series of videos on its Facebook page starting Friday night, showing a man in a vehicle with money and alcohol speaking incoherently. In a video, the man is heard saying “I’m going to blow up the whole community,” reported the Tribune.
The Facebook profile has been removed.