Chicago police have arrested one of two men who they say tried robbing a Logan Square shop before the store owner grabbed a baseball bat and fought back.
Cornell Mack, 53, was charged Thursday with attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery and discharge of a firearm, police said.
Mack and an accomplice are accused of entering Quizhpe's Gifts & Sports, on the 2200 block of North Western Avenue, at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. One of the men had a gun and was seen on surveillance video shooting at the store owner.
With warnings outside and inside the store about the presence of security cameras, the family can't understand how the robbers thought they could get away with the crime.
"They thought that my parents were very vulnerable. They said it's easy to go in and do this. But they didn't know that my dad's a fighter," said Louisa Quizhpe.
Store owner Luis Quizphe, 62, fended off the gunman with a baseball bat for a moment before the shooter tried to run away. Customers need to be buzzed in and out of the store, so they couldn't get out. One of the attackers then returned to the counter and continued shooting.
Quizphe's brother-in-law, Luis Aucaquizhpi, is seen in the video tossing a stool at the gunman and later chasing him with a fire extinguisher after the two robbers buzzed themselves out of the shop.
Bullets penetrated the walls of a safe, glass in the display cases was broken and the store was left a general mess.
After getting away, the men, whom Aucaquizhpi described only as being black men, ran north on Western Avenue and then west on Belden Avenue before getting into a gray car.
Quizphe was shot in the leg during the ordeal and was treated and released from Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital on Wednesday evening.
Police said Thursday they continue searching for the other man involved.
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| Luis Quizhpe and his wife, Aida |
