TINLEY PARK, Ill. — Minutes after police found five bodies Saturday in a store in suburban Chicago, they swarmed neighboring shops, aisle by aisle, with guns drawn in search of a shooter as terrified customers looked on.
“I was so scared I couldn’t think,” shopper Selena Kujawa said.
Officers also took to the skies in a helicopter equipped with an infrared sensor, while their counterparts on the ground used dogs. Police near the mall stopped and boarded buses.
But hours after the slayings in the back of a Lane Bryant clothing store, police were no closer to finding the man they said fled the scene.
The five women, including at least one employee, were found at the Brookside Marketplace after police responded to a 911 call about 10:45 a.m., Police Chief Mike O’Connell said.
Police said a bystander told them that a man came out of the store and gave them a description. Authorities said robbery was believed to be the motive.
“We do not want to compromise any evidence that may be out there. . . . I ask we keep family of the victims in our thoughts and prayers,” O’Connell said.
In a Target store across the parking lot from Lane Bryant, frightened 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.
“They told us to get in our cars and get out of here,” said Kujawa, who had just entered the store with her 5-year-old son when it was locked down. She said her son was still asking about the shooting long after they were home.
“He asked, ‘What happened to the people? Did they catch the bad guy?’ ” she said. “There will be lots of nightmares tonight.”
Chicago’s Police Department warned officers to pay attention to strip malls and Lane Bryant stores, spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
Tinley Park police Sgt. T.J. Grady said investigators were trying to determine whether there was video from security cameras mounted at nearby stores. O’Connell said the Lane Bryant store did not have a camera.
O’Connell would not identify the victims but said they ranged in age from 22 to 37. Four were from suburban Chicago, and one was from South Bend, Ind.
