Police kill gunman after 3 people slain

CHICAGO — A man killed three people and wounded four in a series of shootings over roughly four hours that started on Chicago’s South Side and ended with his death in a shootout with police in a parking lot just north of the city.

Investigators are trying to determine a motive for the attacks, which began Saturday afternoon with the killing of a 30-year-old University of Chicago student who was shot in the head while sitting in his car in a parking garage in the Hyde Park neighborhood, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown told reporters.

The shooter, 32-year- old Jason Nightengale, then “just randomly” walked into an apartment building a block away, where he shot a 46-year-old security guard who was sitting at a desk and a 77-year-old woman who was getting her mail, Brown said. The guard was pronounced dead at a hospital and the older woman, who was shot in the head, was hospitalized in critical condition, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Nightengale then went to a nearby building and stole a car from a man he knew, Brown said, then went to a convenience store and fired shots, killing a 20-year-old man and wounding an 81-year-old woman in the head and neck. The woman was also in critical condition.

After leaving the store, Nightengale shot a 15-yearold girl who was riding in a car with her mother, leaving the girl in critical condition, police said. He then went back to the store and fired on officers who were investigating the earlier shooting.

Nightengale then drove about 10 miles north to Evanston, which borders Chicago, where police responded to a report of shots fired in a CVS drugstore, authorities said. He had apparently walked into the pharmacy, announced that he was robbing it and fired shots that didn’t hit anyone, they said. He then went across the street to an IHOP restaurant, where he shot a woman in the neck, authorities said. She was in critical condition, Evanston police Chief Demitrous Cook told reporters.