1 Dead, Bystander Wounded In Orland Square Mall Shooting

ORLAND PARK, IL — Orland Park said a 19- to 20-year-old man was shot and killed and a bystander suffered a graze wound Monday in a shooting at the Orland Square Mall. During a press conference Monday night, police said the teen was shot at around 6:45 p.m. near the center food court area.

Orland Park Deputy Chief of Police Joseph Mitchell said the victim fled after he was shot in the chest and collapsed near an escalator a short distance from the mall's H&M store, where he was found by first responders. At this time, police believe the victim and shooter knew each other, and Mitchell described the shooting as an "isolated incident."

Witnesses stated two men were involved in an altercation and one of the males pulled a handgun and fired multiple times striking the victim.

The victim was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he died, police said.

Mitchell described the second wounded person as an "innocent bystander" who suffered a bullet graze wound to his leg. That person drove to AMITA Health Adventist Medical Center La Grange, where he is being treated, Mitchell said.

Police are searching for the shooter, described as a 6-foot-1 black male around 20 years old who was wearing black clothing and blue jeans. The shooter was shown on surveillance footage fleeing the mall on foot, heading east, Mitchell said. Police were using a drone and a K-9 in an attempt to track the shooter.

"This mall is one of the safest malls in the Chicagoland area, and ... we are going to use every resource available to find and arrest this individual who is responsible for this," Mitchell said. "This is an ongoing manhunt ... I assure you the Orland Park Police Department is not going to rest until we find this individual."

Mitchell said he was unsure when the mall will reopen. Police continue to collect evidence and review surveillance footage from the shooting, he said.

More than 100 police units began a staging a command center outside the Cheesecake Factory, where at least one witness has reported hearing gunshots. The South Suburban Emergency Response Team has been activated, and witnesses say at least three helicopters continued to hover over the mall area just before 8:30 p.m.

Shoppers told WGN they heard multiple shots and started running.

The shooter was not in custody as of 9 p.m.

Orland Square Mall spokesman Colin McGauley issued a statement in the wake of the shooting saying, "We are grateful for the swift response by the Orland Park Police, Cook County Sheriff’s Department and other first responders."

Patch Editor Lorraine Swanson reported live from the scene:

Witness Accounts

Syreeta Plummer El, a Country Club Hills resident, was in the mall parking lot just before 6:30 p.m. when she planned to make her way over to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. As she was talking on the phone just outside the building, she heard a series of gunshots.

"I knew it was gunshots, so I just started running back to my car and left," Plummer El said. "I don't know what happened there after that, but when I got to the Shell gas station I saw all the police cars and ambulances coming."

Even as a military veteran, Plummer El says it was "scary" to hear the shots at a time and place like Orland Square Mall in the middle of winter. She believes the shots came from outside the mall, but could not say for sure.

Another woman told Patch in an email that she was in the back of a mall store with a few other people and that none of them had known whether the shooter was still at the mall. The woman said she was in a dressing room when she heard six shots and ran to the back of the store.

An Orland Park man who was shopping at the mall with his fiance reported hearing "3, 4, maybe 5 shots" at close range as he walked past the Apple Store. As soon as the couple heard the shots, they ran out the exit adjacent to JCPenney and the H&M store and into the parking lot.

"A gentleman with a little girl offered to give us a ride to our car at the other end of the parking lot," he said.

An employee at one of the stores was leaving work at the time of the shooting when she darted back in to check on her co-workers. At that time, the woman says police had them locked inside the store until they could be escorted out safely.

"Police handled it very swiftly," she said.

The same employee described the scene just after the shots had been fired.

"We all heard girls crying, kids crying," she said. "It was horrifying."

Police expect to provide another update shortly after 10 p.m.

If you were at Orland Square Mall, email orlandpark@patch.com. Tell us what you saw. Witnesses can also call Patch Editor Tim Moran at 219-229-7648.

There’s a shooting happening in Orland Square Mall and my A&F coworkers and I are locked in the back with customers until further notice.
— C D (@ChristitoDiaz) January 22, 2019

Photo by Lorraine Swanson, Patch Staff

Tim Moran, Patch Staff, contributed to this report