4 dead following shooting spree in Chicago area

Four people are dead, including the suspect, after an hourslong shooting spree across the Chicago area.

The bloodshed began Saturday at 1:50 p.m. when a man entered a parking lot on South East End Avenue in Chicago and shot a 30-year-old man who was sitting inside a car, according to the Chicago Police Department. The victim, a student at the University of Chicago, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The suspect then entered an apartment building on the same street around 2 p.m. and fired shots at a female security guard, who was shot in the chest, as well as a 77-year-old woman who was retrieving her mail, police said. They were both transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where the security guard was pronounced dead and the 77-year-old woman remains in critical condition.

“He proceeded to walk into the building and I think she told him he had to leave the building and then he shot her,” a neighbor told ABC Chicago station WLS. “So then she began to run and he shot her again.”

The security guard had worked in the building for years and had two children, the neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told the station.

The suspect then went to another building on South East End Avenue around 2:45 p.m. and pulled a gun on a man he knew, police said. The suspect pushed the victim into his apartment, demanded his car keys, and fled the location in the car.

Around 3:45 p.m., the suspect entered a store on South Halsted Street and announced a robbery, police said. The suspect fired at people inside the store and struck a 20-year-old man in the head and an 81-year-old woman in the back and head. They were both taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where the man was pronounced dead and the woman remains in critical condition, according to police.

The suspect then fled the scene in a vehicle, police said.

At about 5 p.m., a 15-year-old girl was shot in the head as she was riding in the back of a car being driven by a family member on South Halsted Street, police said. The teen is in critical condition at the Comer Children’s Hospital, police said. It is unclear where the suspect was located when he fired the gun.

Minutes later, the suspect returned to the area near the robbery on South Halsted Street and shot at the crime scene, striking a Chicago Police Department car, police said.

The suspect was later shot by officers from the Evanston Police Department after he went into a CVS store near Asbury and Howard Streets in Evanston, announced a robbery, and fled to a nearby IHOP, where he shot a woman in the head he had taken hostage, police said. The woman was taken to the hospital in critical condition and later died, police said.

After the suspect was shot, he attempted to flee and collapsed, police said.

The suspect was identified by Chicago Police Chief David Brown as 32-year-old Jason Nightengale.

Nightengale died from the gunshot wound he sustained during a shootout with Evanston police. Brown did not give a motive for the shooting but commended Evanston police officers for stopping further carnage.

“But for the brave conduct of Evanston police officers confronting this suspect, many more people would’ve been injured,” Brown said.

Nightengale had previous arrests beginning in 2005 for charges of gun and drug violations, criminal trespassing, theft, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, reckless conduct and domestic violence, WLS reported.

His most recent arrest involved a domestic battery charge in October 2019, according to the station.

The University of Chicago announced Sunday that Yiran Fan, a 30-year-old Ph.D. student in a joint business and economic program, was shot and killed in the rampage.

“This sudden and senseless loss of life causes us indescribable sorrow,” the university said in a statement.

The remaining victims are in the process of being identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

ABC7