Man killed is 'potential suspect' in shootings
CHICAGO — An armed man killed by a customer during a robbery attempt at a suburban Chicago tanning salon over the weekend may be the same person who terrorized residents along the Illinois-Indiana border in apparently random shootings two months ago, authorities said Monday.
Investigators in the October shootings are working with police investigating Saturday's thwarted robbery to determine if the gunman was the same, Will County Sheriff's office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer told The Associated Press.
The suburb where the attempted robbery occurred, Orland Park, is about 25 miles northwest of the rural border area where an unknown gunman struck in October — violence that garnered national attention after the attacker asked one victim about honeybees before firing.
Ballistic tests were being done on the handgun used in the robbery attempt to see if it was also used in the Oct. 5 attacks that left one person dead and two injured, Hoffmeyer said. She declined to say what led authorities to think the incidents could be connected.
The sheriff's office said it would likely have an announcement on Tuesday, but it would not elaborate. Authorities have not released the name of the man killed during the robbery attempt.
Meanwhile, the customer who walked into the salon Saturday evening was hailed as a hero.
"He is a true hero and we are in gratitude for his heroism," the L.A. Tan's staff said in a written statement about the customer, Jason McDaniel, 29. "In our eyes, he is our Superman."
The armed man Saturday had just ordered one woman inside the salon to tie up another when McDaniel walked in, an Orland Park police statement said. The man pointed the gun at McDaniel and ordered him to tie himself up.
McDaniel told reporters he tried to reason with the robber, even offering him money and also telling him that he had a baby girl at home. But McDaniel said that had little affect.
As the gunman reached for rope in a bag, he put the gun on a counter: That's when McDaniel rushed him and snatched the gun, elbowing the robber in the chin, he said. McDaniel let off a shot — but the man kept coming at him.
"So I shot him again in the stomach, and that's when he fell," McDaniel told the Chicago Tribune.
McDaniel also told the Southtown Star he got the sense the gunman may not have been primarily after money.
"I think he was there to hurt people," McDaniel said.
McDaniel told the Chicago Sun-Times he didn't want to kill the man, but had little choice as he sought to save himself and others.
As recently as last week, authorities investigating the October shooting spree conceded the trail had gone cold. One official, the chief of police in Lowell, Ind., John Shelhart, said Wednesday he believed the gunman would likely not be caught until he struck again.
Police officer Brian Dorian was arrested in the shootings in October, but he was released and cleared of any suspicion after detectives verified he'd been home logged on to his computer the morning of the attacks.
The shootings began in the morning of Oct. 5 at a rural construction site in Illinois. The gunman shot and killed Rolando Alonso, 45, of Hammond, Ind., and wounded Joshua Garza, a 19-year-old from Dyer, Ind. Later, farmer Keith Dahl, 64, was wounded near Lowell, Ind.
Wanted-poster sketches of the shooting suspect have remained up around villages in the area, around 50 miles south of Chicago. And officers have kept a lookout for light blue Chevy pickup trucks similar to the one the gunman drove.