- Credibility:
LOGAN SQUARE — A woman leaving Dill Pickle Co-Op Wednesday evening was shot during a robbery in a “very traumatic and distressing” incident caught on surveillance video.
The shooting happened around 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, just as the Dill Pickle at 2746 N. Milwaukee Ave. was about to close for the night.
The woman, a 22-year-old member of the co-op grocery store, was in the driver’s seat of a parked white SUV when she was attacked by an armed man in a black hoodie in the Dill Pickle’s parking lot, according to video footage shown to Block Club and police.
Surveillance footage captured by the store’s cameras show a struggle between the woman and her attacker.
At first, the man tries to yank her out of the car, but she resists, the video shows. Then, the man forcefully rifles through her pocket, appears to get something, and shoots her in the left arm before jumping in a black car idling just a few feet away. Police said the man made off with the woman’s phone.
After the attacker drives off, the woman gets out of the car and looks around, the video shows. When she gets back into the car, she looks down at her arm, concerned. A neighbor walks nearby, and the woman appears to ask him for help.
Police said officers on the scene applied a tourniquet to the woman’s arm before she was taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital. The woman is listed in “fair” condition.
As of Friday, no one was in custody for the shooting. Detectives are continuing to investigate.
Credit: Google MapsThe shooting prompted a lockdown at the Dill Pickle, which was due to close about 15 minutes later, at 10 p.m., the store’s general manager I’Talia McCarthy said. Store employees and a few remaining customers hunkered down as they waited for police to give the all clear, McCarthy said.
McCarthy said the manager on duty followed the store’s active shooter policy.
“His first obligation was calling 911, getting himself out of harm’s way. Then it’s going into the store, locking the store up, informing everyone that they had to stay in the store until the police come, then you get away from all of the windows,” she said. “He called the cops, then he called me and asked me to check the cameras.”
In an email to customers Thursday, McCarthy said “safety is our main concern for all customers, staff and members of the co-op.”
“Within the store we have safety plans and policies in place to keep our employees safe. We encourage you to please be aware of your surroundings at this time,” she said. “This violent incident is obviously very traumatic and distressing for all involved. We thank you all for your support and care for our business and neighborhood.”
The Dill Pickle parking lot shooting comes just a few months after a good Samaritan was shot and killed on Milwaukee Avenue after trying to help a woman being attacked.
McCarthy said the store hired a security guard last summer amid the unrest over the police killing of George Floyd, and they are considering doing it again in light of this week’s violent attack.
“My message to people is to be extremely vigilant, be aware, walk with a friend or a coworker if you can, whenever you can, especially at night, and very early in the morning,” she said.
