March 26, 2022- 2:32 p.m.
A shooting at a suburban Chicago shopping mall left one man dead and two others people wounded, including a teenage girl, while shoppers ran for cover, police said.
A person of interest was taken into custody after Friday night’s shooting at the Fashion Outlets of Chicago mall in Rosemont, a village just northwest of the city, Rosemont police said. Police did not release a motive for the shooting that happened just after 7 p.m. near the mall’s indoor food court, but said it was an “isolated incident” and possibly a targeted attack.
The Cook County medical exmainer’s office identified the man who died as Joel Valdes, 20.
A 15-year-old girl who was shot in the right wrist was in stable condition, said Sgt. Joe Balogh of the Rosemont Public Safety Department.
The third person who was shot ran away or “escaped,” Rosemont spokesman Gary Mack said.
Balogh said that while two assailants fled in a red car, authorities evacuated and searched the mall.
Luis Elijio said he and his family, including his 5-month-old daughter, were shopping at a store in the mall when a women opened the store’s doors and screamed, “They’re shooting!” An employee locked the doors and people inside retreated to the back of the store, Elijio said.
“And right after that I heard what sounded like an automatic weapon,” he said while recovering with his family in the lobby of the nearby Crowne Plaza hotel.
