‘We Thought It Was Thunder:' Witnesses Recount Food 4 Less Shooting

OAK FOREST, IL — It was a sunny, Sunday morning with people going about their business when gunfire erupted inside the Food 4 Less supermarket in Oak Forest. Before it was over, a 21-year-old woman, said by police to be armed with a gun, was fatally shot in an exchange of gunfire with officers. An Oak Forest police officer was also wounded and is in serious condition.

A panicked woman ran into the Great Clips adjacent to the Oak Forest Food 4 Less supermarket at 159th Street and Central Avenue.

“She saw it all,” an employee said of the woman who ran into the salon. “She was in the self-checkout and shaken up. She kept saying, ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what to do.'”

>>> Officer Shot, Woman Dead After Oak Forest Food 4 Less Shooting

About 20 customers were inside Great Clips. Employees locked the front door and everyone ran to the back.

“We heard the gunshots,” the employee told Patch. “We thought it was thunder.”

Oak Forest resident Jackie Human and her husband were inside Food 4 Less doing their weekly grocery shopping, as they have done routinely for several years. The couple had just left the deli department and were in the snack food aisle when Human said she heard yelling.

“I shushed my husband to be quiet,” Human said. “The voices escalated, and then I heard shots. It was loud. It was so sudden. It sounded like somebody emptying a magazine. Just boom, boom, boom.”

A licensed concealed-carry holder, Human put her hand on the 9 mm SIG Sauer she carried in her pocket.

“I kind of froze for a minute, not because I’m scared, because I know what to do,” she said. “I knew [it was gunfire] but wasn’t sure where it was coming from,” Human said. "When I realized it wasn’t stopping, we ran to the stockroom in the back of the store.”

Some people left through the back exit. Human and four other people hid in the back.

"We were waiting, and then it was quiet," Human said. "We waited ten minutes. I ventured out into the store again and heard a little more yelling, but no more gunfire.”

Eventually, police came and escorted the shoppers hiding in the back out of the store.

“There were people really traumatized. One lady was crying,” Human said. “You can’t even go to something as routine as your Sunday grocery shopping without having to worry if you’re going to go home.”

“I won’t shop in this area. The crime is getting too close to my home,” Human continued. “We’ll go to New Lenox.”