Authorities say a 61-year-old woman became the fourth person to die in a series of shootings this month by a Chicago sniper who was later killed in a police shooting.
CHICAGO – A 61-year-old woman became the fourth person to die in a series of shootings this month by a Chicago sniper who was later killed in a suburban police shooting, officials said on Sunday.
Marta Torres, an Evanston woman who was in critical condition for a week after being shot at an IHOP, died Saturday in a hospital, according to Cook County medical examiner. His autopsy was scheduled for Sunday.
According to police, Jason Nightengale, 32, from Chicago, shot seven people in a series of attacks on January 9 over a period of approximately four hours. Most of the attacks took place on the south side of Chicago before Nightengale went to Evanston, north of the city, where he shot Torres before police officers killed him during a shootout. The victims were between 15 and 81 years old.
Authorities did not disclose the reason for the deaths, which they described as random. Nightengale posted several disturbing and meaningless short videos on Facebook before the murders. In one, he brandished a weapon; in another, he threatened to “blow up the whole community.”
The other three people killed were Yiran Fan, a 30-year-old Chinese student at the University of Chicago, 20-year-old Anthony Faulkner and 46-year-old security guard Aisha Nevell.
Updated conditions on the three other wounded, a 15-year-old girl, a 77-year-old woman and an 81-year-old woman, were not immediately available.
Tiffany McNeal, the mother of 15-year-old girl Damia Smith, told The Chicago Tribune last week that her daughter was fighting for her life in a children’s hospital.
“She’s holding on,” said McNeal. “They are just saying that it is not good. But I am believing. I am believing in God. “
Nightenagle, the father of twin girls, has listed jobs over the years as caretaker, security and forklift operator, according to his LinkedIn page.
“He was fighting some demons,” said a relative, Annette Nightengale, to The Chicago Sun-Times. “He had some problems.”