Authorities say a 61-year-old woman became the fourth person to die this month in a series of shootings by a Chicago gunman who was later killed in a police shooting.
CHICAGO – A 61-year-old woman became the fourth person to die this month after a series of shootings by a Chicago gunman who was later killed in a police shooting in a suburb, authorities said Sunday.
Marta Torres, an Evanston woman who had been in critical condition for a week after being shot at an IHOP, died in a hospital Saturday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Her autopsy was scheduled for Sunday.
According to police, 32-year-old Chicago-based Jason Nightengale shot seven people in a series of attacks on January 9 over a period of about four hours. Most of the attacks took place on the south side of Chicago before Nightengale drove to Evanston, just north of the city, where he shot Torres before officers killed him in a shootout. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 81 years.
The authorities have not released a motive for the murders, which they describe as arbitrary. Nightengale posted numerous disturbing and nonsensical short videos on Facebook before the murders. In one of them he waved a gun; in another he threatened to “blow up the whole community”.
The other three people killed were Yiran Fan, a 30-year-old University of Chicago student from China, 20-year-old Anthony Faulkner, and 46-year-old security guard Aisha Nevell.
Updated conditions for the three other injured, a 15-year-old girl, a 77-year-old woman, and an 81-year-old woman, were not immediately available.
Tiffany McNeal, the mother of the 15-year-old girl, Damia Smith, told The Chicago Tribune last week that her daughter was fighting for her life in a children’s hospital.
“She’s holding on,” said McNeal. ‘They just say it doesn’t look right. But I believe. I believe in God. “
Nightenagle, a father of twin girls, listed the job over the years as a janitor, security guard and forklift driver, according to his LinkedIn page.
“He fought demons,” a family member, Annette Nightengale, told The Chicago Sun-Times. “He had some problems.”