Fatal Shooting at Michigan Avenue Nordstrom's Friday Night

A man shot a woman behind the cosmetics counter of the Michigan Avenue Nordstrom’s store in downtown Chicago Friday evening and then turned the gun on himself. The man died in the store and the woman was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Chicago Police Chief of Detectives John J. Escalante told reporters the shooter was the boyfriend or ex-boyfriend of the woman, who was a seasonal store employee. Their names and ages were not available early Saturday. The woman is in critical condition.

Customers who packed the store for Black Friday shopping rushed out after the shots were fired, witnesses said. The shooting took place about 8:20 p.m. on the second floor of the store at 55 E. Grand Ave. in The Shops at North Bridge.

“It was a pow and a pow,” Michelle Smith, 47, of Chicago’s Morgan Park community told reporters. “It was a stampede coming down the escalator.”

She and her daughter dropped everything and ran. When Smith got outside, onto Grand Avenue, she dialed 911 on her cell phone.

Employees urged shoppers in other parts of the store to quickly evacuate.

VIDEO VIA CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

“Everyone was just running, and like, I’m a big guy and people were knocking me over. My feeling was just, get the hell out of there. So everybody runs out the back and I’m basically saying to people, we need to get out of the building,” said Scott Balloch.

Many customers did not know a shooting had taken place, only that they were being told to leave the store.

And other customers were completely unaware.

Mary Peyovich, 51, told the Chicago Sun-Times she was in a dressing room trying on pants and didn’t hear anything.

“I just came out of the dressing room and everyone was gone,” she said.

After the scene was secure and the victim was taken to the hospital, police found customers hiding in restroom afraid to come out, not knowing that the shooting was over.

POLICE AUDIO

More information as this story develops.