Shoppers Recount Horrifying Moments After Security Guard Shot to Death at River Oaks Mall

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A 57-year-old man is dead after he was shot during a jewelry store robbery in a suburban mall on Wednesday, with shoppers in nearby retailers forced to dive for cover amid the sound of gunfire.

According to police, the man was working as a security guard at a store inside of the River Oaks Mall in suburban Calumet City on Wednesday afternoon when armed robbers entered the building.

Witnesses say the suspects opened fire, striking the guard multiple times, before fleeing the store.  

“I heard a round of shots in Macy’s, but it wasn’t just a regular gunshot. It was like an automatic (weapon),” shopper Tracy McGrew said. “It was just surreal.”

McGrew says she was doing some early Christmas shopping on Wednesday when the gunfire erupted. She says she was with a clerk at the time.

“I saw the brick wall, and I thought ‘those could stop bullets,’ so I went right there,’” she said. “So the two of us locked ourselves into a storage room and called 911.”

Tonya Davis says she was getting a pedicure at the time of the shooting.

“I was getting my feet done, and I looked up from my phone. All you could hear was five or more shots,” she said. “The guy was shooting inside the jewelry store.”

Here is the NBC 5 Nightly Update for Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022.

Davis says that by the time she could react, she could already see the guard that had been shot.

“He was laying on the floor, still breathing,” she said. “There was officers on all sides trying to perform CPR.”

Some of those officers happened to be nearby, conducting a training exercise in an adjacent building, according to police. By the time they arrived, the mall was in its lockdown procedures, but the suspects were able to escape in a vehicle.

The guard, who was shot multiple times, later died from his injuries at an area hospital, according to Calumet City police.

George Brown, an employee at a barber shop in the mall, says he knew the guard.

“He used to work with my father at the railroad,” he said. “It’s senseless.”

The assailants made off with an unspecified amount of merchandise from the store, and remain at-large. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Calumet City Police at 708-868-2500.

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