Gun used in daylong rampage likely was used in other shootings
The gun that a 32-yearold man used in a daylong spate of fatal shootings that stretched from Chicago’s South Side into Evanston in January was used in as many as five other shootings over the past 11 years, documents released to the Tribune on Friday revealed.
The .45-caliber Glock 21 semi-automatic handgun was believed to have been first used to shoot someone in Chicago in June 2009 in the South Shore community, according to police reports. The reports linked the gun to four more shootings before authorities say Jason Nightengale, 32, used it in the Jan. 9 shootings, and before he was fatally shot by Evanston police.
Details about the gun were included in reports obtained by the Tribune on Friday through an open-records request made last month.
The reports do not show how Nightengale was able to obtain the Glock he used in the shootings, which Chicago police have said appeared to be random acts of violence. Authorities have said illegally obtained guns used in Chicago shootings often change hands among gang members, are bought and sold on the streets or are sometimes stolen from legal gun owners.
The reports show that before Jan. 9, the gun was used in as many as five other shootings — with at least one person wounded in each attack — going back to 2009. They occurred in the South Shore, South Chicago and West Pullman communities on Chicago’s South and Far South sides, records show.
Authorities compared the gun with the shell casings from the older shootings and determined there were likely ballistics matches.
The gun was legally sold to a man in his late 20s on Dec. 9, 2006, at Chuck’s Gun Shop in south suburban Riverdale, the reports show.
About two and a half years later, on June 2, 2009, the gun was used in a shooting in the 7400 block of South Colfax Avenue. Then six months later and two days before Christmas, the gun was used in another shooting in the 7800 block of South Ridgeland Avenue.
On Aug. 18, 2011, the gun was used in another shooting in the 7800 block of South Cregier Avenue. And then it was fired in another shooting about three years later, on July 24, 2014, in the 8000 block of South Manistee Avenue. The weapon was fired again the day before Halloween in 2016 in the 12300 block of South Emerald Avenue. At least one person was wounded in each of these shootings, records show. Nobody died, but nobody was charged in any of the cases either, according to the reports.
Aside from the five shootings, a shell casing believed to have come from the gun was found near 120th Place and State Street on March 9, 2017, the reports show.
About four years later, the gun was used again when Nightengale went on his deadly shooting rampage.
He had posted numerous disturbing and nonsensical short videos on Facebook at some point before the wave of violence. In one social media post, Nightengale brandished a gun; in another, he threatened to “blow up the whole community.”
His victims on Jan. 9 included Yiran Fan, 30, a Chinese citizen studying at the University of Chicago who was fatally shot in an East Hyde Park neighborhood parking garage, and 46-year-old Aisha Nevell, who worked the door at the Barclay condominium building down the street in the 4900 block of South East End Avenue. Shirley Hinton, 77, was shot and wounded in the building’s lobby by Nightengale, police say, but she survived her injuries.
Nightengale is next believed to have committed a home invasion at a nearby building. In that attack, the victim reported that Nightengale followed him onto an elevator and got off on the same floor. As they were walking, Nightengale displayed a black handgun and said, “you’re being robbed,” according to the reports.
Once inside the victim’s residence, Nightengale demanded the victim’s car keys and asked for a glass of water and money, before fleeing.
Nightengale drove from the area in the victim’s red Toyota Corolla, reports show.
From there, Nightengale headed southwest to the Brainerd and Washington Heights communities, police said.
There, police say Nightengale went to a convenience store at 93rd and Halsted streets and fatally shot Anthony Faulkner, a 20-yearold who dreamed of a career flipping houses. Nightengale also shot 81-year-old Virginia McAllister, a store clerk, in that same shooting, but she survived, police said.
Police said Damia Smith, 15, was also shot in the head by Nightengale in the 10300 block of South Halsted Street, while sitting in the back seat of a Chevrolet Equinox driven by her mother. She died about a month later.
Later in the day on Jan. 9, Nightengale drove up to Evanston along Howard Street. There, he shot at someone in a CVS pharmacy on the Evanston side of Howard but did not injure anyone. He then ran to an IHOP restaurant, also on the Evanston side of Howard, where he shot 61-year-old Marta Torres in the restaurant, police say. She died of her injuries a week later.
After shooting Torres, Nightengale was shot and killed by Evanston police about 5:30 p.m. Jan. 9 outside a Dollar General store on the Chicago side of Howard Street. That’s where the .45-caliber handgun was confiscated by police.