Cops call off search for reported gunman at Woodfield

Schaumburg police reopened Woodfield Shopping Center at 4 p.m. Monday, nearly five hours after a report of a possibly armed man led them to put the mall on a partial lockdown and prohibit anyone from entering.

"We have not found any guns," Schaumburg police Sgt. John Nebl said. "We have not found any people that match the description of the people we are looking for."

The next step for police is a follow-up investigation looking at security camera footage and other evidence to try to determine if the person who reported the incident really saw what she thought she saw.

Police began searching Woodfield just after 11:20 a.m. Monday following a shopper's report that she saw two suspicious-looking men enter the mall, one of whom had what appeared to be a gun.

There were no subsequent reports of any crime or any public safety incidents inside the mall, but police took the initial report seriously, Nebl said.

People were allowed to remain in the mall and to leave when they wished, as long as they didn't match the description of the two men, Nebl said.

Police did, however, stop people from entering Woodfield until the search was completed.

Authorities did not elaborate on what those descriptions were.

About 30 officers conducted a store-by-store check of the roughly 300 stores in the mall.

"It's simply a matter of police work and not public safety," Nebl said. "We have not called in any SWAT teams or emergency response teams."

While there have been reports of such nature before, it's the first time police have gone to this extent, Nebl said.

Some mall stores decided on their own to close.

Some shoppers and mall employees said they were given little to no information about the police activity or that a gunman had been reported.

"They haven't told us anything," said Shane Oleniczak of Elk Grove Village, an employee at Gamer's World in the mall.

Oleniczak said a co-worker who'd heard early news reports about the security situation had called him to relay the information. He added that the store owner let employees go and stayed behind.

Despite the police presence, the scene at the mall remained calm. At 1:30 p.m., the entrance to the JC Penney anchor store was open, and shoppers inside behaved like nothing unusual was happening.

"I drove out here, so why waste the trip?" said Debby Minor of Bartlett while searching for a bargain on a winter coat. "It seems like the police have things under control."

Other shoppers said they were unaware of any security incident.

"I'm glad I didn't know," said Meredith Warden of Chicago, who had an afternoon appointment with the mall's maintenance supervisor but was turned away at the entrance. She'd planned to arrive earlier to shop.

"Had I gotten here an hour earlier, I could have been at risk," she said.

The mall management office did apparently notify individual stores about the incident through an internal communications system.

There was an early, unsubstantiated report of an armored car driver being held up, but the only truth to this was that an armored car was parked near the same entrance that the two suspicious men reportedly used.

• Staff Writers Madhu Krishnamurthy and Matt Arado contributed to this report.

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