3 People Were Killed And 4 Injured In A Shooting Spree Where The Suspect Acted "Randomly"

Police shot and killed a man suspected of a four-hour-long shooting spree that began with the death of a college student in a Chicago parking garage and ended with a hostage situation at a suburban IHOP.

Jason Nightengale, 32, led Chicago police on a chase across the city Saturday afternoon in which they responded to seven shooting incidents before he was killed in a shootout with Evanston Police around 5 p.m., authorities said. Three people were killed and four injured, their ages ranging from 15 to 81.

“We are responding to the scene as these crimes are happening, getting information, and again, he’s going to the next while we are trying to keep up with what’s happened previously,” said Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown during a press briefing on Saturday night.

Authorities have not said what may have motivated Nightengale.

The spree began just before 2 p.m. Saturday, when Nightengale is suspected of entering a parking garage on the south side of Chicago. Police said he shot and killed a University of Chicago student sitting in his parked car.

Nightengale then walked into an apartment building a few blocks away “just randomly,” said Brown, and began shooting. A female security guard who was sitting at a desk was killed. A 77-year-old woman retrieving her mail was shot in the head. She is in a critical condition.

He then went to another apartment building, pulled a gun on a person he knew, and demanded the keys to the person’s car. He then went on to use that stolen vehicle for the rest of the afternoon shootings, police said.

About an hour later, at 3:45 p.m, Nightengale entered a convenience store where he attempted a robbery and shot and killed a 20-year-old man. An 81-year-old woman who was a customer is in a critical condition.

At 5 p.m, about a block away from the store, a 15-year-old girl was shot in the head as she rode in the back seat of a car driven by a family member. She is in a critical condition.

Nightengale then returned to the convenience store where police were investigating the incident and fired further shots, striking a police car, before again fleeing, authorities said.

In his briefing, Brown described the difficulty officers had in following Nightengale’s erratic movements.

“When you hear this whole story, it seems that you have a crystal ball of what he’s doing next, and we all know we don’t have a crystal ball where he goes next, nor do we have this on any of our [police observation device] cameras,” said Brown. “By the time we put it all together, he’s here in Evanston.”

Nightengale drove to the suburb of Evanston, about 20 miles away, and opened fire in a CVS, before running into an IHOP restaurant and taking a woman hostage. He shot her in the neck, leaving her in critical condition, police said. Evanston Police then exchanged fire with Nightengale in the parking lot, where he died.

Shortly after, Evanston Police tweeted a photo of the gun they said they recovered from Nightengale.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Nightengale posted a series of videos to his Facebook page starting Friday evening, showing a man in a vehicle with money and alcohol speaking incoherently. In one video, the man is heard saying “I’m going to blow up the whole community,” the Tribune reported.

The Facebook profile has been removed.