Not much time to stop by... Been working OT this week... Already at 23.4 hours in two days...
Look what happened at a mall that's less than 4 miles from my house... This kind of thing doesn't usually happen around here in the suburbs and it's too close to home...
Man killed, second man wounded in shooting at Orland Square Mall
Shoppers describe 'terror' in mall after murder as hunt for gunman continues
Manhunt continues for gunman in Orland Park mall shooting; family describes victim as ‘just a normal kid’
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ORLAND PARK, Ill. -- A 19-year-old man was shot and killed and a second man wounded in a shooting at a mall in Orland Park Monday.
Police responded to the Orland Square Mall Monday around 6:45 p.m. for reports of shots fired near the food court.
Police said a man with a gun, who they describe as black, 6 feet 1 inch, wearing dark clothing and blue jeans, fired shots and the 19-year-old was struck. Police said that 19-year-old is believed to be the intended target and knew the man with the gun.
The victim was taken to the hospital where he died.
Police said a second man, believed to be 19 or 20, was grazed in the leg and self transported to the hospital. Police believe this man did not know either the 19-year-old or the man with the gun.
At 8 p.m. police said they had performed a search of the mall and believed the shooter had left the building. The mall was then evacuated and police searched stores again.
Police said the shooting was an isolated incident.
The mall is located at 288 Orland Square Dr in Orland Park.
WGN’s Tahman Bradley was inside the mall and heard multiple shots fired and saw shoppers running. He said a customer reported seeing police inside the mall.
The circumstances surrounding the shooting are not yet known.
Police continue to investigate and said security camera footage should aid in the investigation.
This is a developing story. Check back for details.
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Police continued their search late Tuesday for a parolee in connection with the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Rich Central High School senior at Orland Square Mall as members of the victim’s family called on the man to turn himself in.
Family members of Javon Britten said he was a “quiet, unassuming” teen who was hanging out with his cousin at Orland Square Mall in Orland Park Monday when he was shot to death near the food court.
Britten’s mother Nail Hobson, speaking to television crews Tuesday afternoon outside the Cook County medical examiner’s office, said her son“was a wonderful kid, the best child you could ask for, the best child I could ask for.”
She recalled the last words she exchanged with her son Monday before he left for the mall.
“He told me, ‘I love you, mom,’” she said. “I said, ‘I love you, too.’”
Orland Park police said a gunman pulled out a gun and fired several times at Britten following a confrontation near the mall’s food court. Britten was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Police said that there is a manhunt underway for 19-year-old Jakharr Williams, of University Park, who they said “should be considered armed and dangerous” and that he has an active parole warrant.
Police are asking that anyone with information contact them at (708) 349-4111 or email [email protected].
According to Illinois Department of Corrections records, Williams was on parole as of last June following a robbery conviction, with his parole due to end in June 2020. He was admitted to Shawnee Correctional Center in Vienna in June 2017.
Police described the shooting as an “isolated incident.” Another person in the mall suffered a graze wound during the shooting, police said. Representatives with the mall and the mall’s owner, Simon Property Group, were not available Tuesday to comment on the shooting.
Police said that Britten and Williams knew each other but offered no other details about what prompted the shooting, which sent shoppers and mall employees scrambling for cover when shots were fired.
Customers at some stores were directed to shelter inside locked areas in the stores.
Britten, who went by Von, loved playing basketball, football and video games, his uncle Cecil Guyton said Tuesday.
“He was just a normal kid,” said Guyton, who said his sister adopted Britten, her half-sister’s son, when he was a small child.
Guyton said his sister, Jocelyn Williams, had provided a stable home for Britten, who spent time in foster care out of state before Williams became his guardian about a dozen years ago.
“Family meant a lot to Von,” Guyton said. “Because he’d lost us at one time and now that he had us back he didn’t want to let go.”
Britten was especially tight with his 20-year-old cousin/adopted brother Chucky, with whom he lived in Richton Park, he said.
The pair, whom Guyton said were inseparable, had been together at the mall Monday night.
“They had been at one of my sisters’ houses and left to go to the mall,” Guyton said. “Just like kids, they were just going to the mall to hang out for a minute.”
He said Von and Chucky knew the suspect through their connection to Rich Central High School, which all three had attended, but wasn’t sure if they had a prior beef or if Monday’s shooting stemmed from an incident that occurred at the mall. Guyton said he didn’t believe his nephews had gone to the mall intending to meet or confront the suspect.
Guyton said Chucky, who witnessed the shooting and narrowly missed being hit, was traumatized by the violent scene and was struggling to process the sudden loss of his cousin.
“One thing he said last (Monday) night was, who is he going to turn to now that Von was gone?” he said. “They depended on each other, they trusted each other.”
Guyton said his nephew told him Britten was shot five times and the gunman fired off a couple shots at him as he ran.
Britten, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
“When I got to the police station (Chucky) just melted in my arms and just sobbed,” Guyton said. “I can imagine what he had witnessed was so horrific that he couldn’t process it. He said later it was like a dream to him.”
Column: How a fatal shooting at Orland Park mall played out on social media »
While the family is grieving and wants justice for the shooter, they don’t want to see him harmed in any way, he said.
“We want to show that, even in light of a tragedy, not only can we come together, but we will come together in peace and harmony,” Guyton said.
“We are not wishing him ill will because what our family is going through is similar to what his family is going to go through. They’re going to possibly lose their son, if not for just a few years, but they will lose him.”
Outside the medical examiner’s offices, Eric Russell, an activist with Tree of Life Justice League, spoke alongside members of Britten’s family, asking the shooter to turn himself in.
Andrew Holmes, another activist, implored family members of the suspect to “do the right thing” and turn him in, saying there was a $2,000 incentive for information leading to his arrest.
“I’m just asking the shooter, his mom, his sister, his brother, whomever. Turn him in with the help of God,” Britten’s aunt Stephanie Kizer said. “Surrender so that we can have peace and you can have peace, too, as well.”
Rich Central in Olympia Fields, where Britten was a senior, released a statement on his death Tuesday. Principal Todd Whitaker said the school’s crisis response team would provide support to students and staff in need, and asked parents to watch their teens closely for signs of distress over the next several days.
Alicia Evans, an assistant superintendent with Rich Township High School District 227, said she could not provide any additional information about Britten and that the district would not comment further on his death.
“While it is important to deal with grief, loss, anger and fear reactions, we believe it is essential to attempt to resume a normal routine regarding school activities,” the school’s statement said.
Police responded to a call of shots fired near the food court of the mall Monday evening, and Britten was found near an escalator near H&M, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died. The other victim also was taken to Christ hospital.
In a message Tuesday, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau said he and village trustees were offering their “condolences and good wishes to the victims and their families” and praised first-responders for their actions.
Along with mall security personnel, Orland Park police have uniformed officers inside the mall, according to Lt. Kenneth Rosinski, with the department’s investigation division. He said he did not know how many officers had been in the mall at the time of Monday’s shooting.
While the department has procedures in place for responding to such shooting incidents, Rosinski said the department would likely “be analyzing everything in the coming days and weeks.”
Around the country, mall operators work with federal and local law enforcement “to ensure that proper security and safety plans are in place should an event occur on the property,” Stephanie Cegielski, spokeswoman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, which represents mall owners, said Tuesday.
