A 61-year-old woman shot in an Evanston IHOP parking lot near the end of a shooting last weekend died, according to Cook County medical examiner.
Marta Torres passed away at 6 pm on Saturday at Hospital São Francisco. She is the fourth person killed in a wave of crimes that police say was committed by sniper Jason Nightengale, 32.
Police said Nightengale shot seven people in Chicago and Evanston before he was killed by Evanston police on January 9. The current conditions of the other three injured people could not be confirmed on Sunday.
Chicago cops said the wave started with Nightengale shooting a 30-year-old man dead in a parking lot on 5,000 East Block. The University of Chicago later identified the man as a Ph.D. student Yiran Fan.
Then, in an apartment complex about a block away, Nightengale shot and killed 46-year-old Aisha Nevell, better known as Aisha Johnson, who was looking after the door of an East Hyde Park condominium, police said. He also shot a 77-year-old woman in the head while picking up her mail at the complex, according to police.
Nightengale went to an apartment building on block 5500 in the South East End and forced a man he knew at gunpoint to give Nightengale his red Toyota, police said. He drove to block 9300 in South Halsted and entered a convenience store around 3 pm. He shot and killed 20-year-old Anthony Faulkner, police said, and also shot an 81-year-old woman who was left in critical condition last Sunday.
An hour later, a 15-year-old girl was shot in the head while riding in a vehicle on block 10300 on South Halsted Street with her mother. Brown said Nightengale is also responsible for this shooting. This has left the girl in critical condition since last Sunday.
Around 5:45 pm, Evanston police responded to shots fired at Evanston’s IHOP, where Torres was held hostage and then shot by Nightengale, police said. Nightengale then ran out of the restaurant and got into a shootout with Evanston officers in a nearby Dollar General parking lot, where he was killed.
In response to Torres’ death, the local Evanston IHOP franchisee issued a statement saying he was “deeply saddened”.
“This was an act of senseless violence … This is a heartbreaking situation and our thoughts are with Ms. Torres’ family right now,” the statement said.
Nightengale’s family told the Sun-Times that he “was fighting some demons.” Before filming, the man also posted dozens of videos online in which he spoke about Satan, waved a gun and talked about killing random people.
Contributing: Madeline Kenney