Police ID Hanover Park shooting victim as Elgin woman

Hanover Park residents are reeling after the second homicide in the village in five days.

Police said 26-year-old Rocio Munez-Ramos of Elgin died after being shot in the head with a single bullet Tuesday night outside the Park Place strip mall on the 1800 block of Irving Park Road.

The shooting happened at 8:30 p.m., about 90 minutes after the start of a vigil held to remember Vatsala Thakkar, the victim of last week's fatal stabbing at another strip mall less than three miles away.

Hanover Park Village President Rodney Craig attended that vigil. He said Wednesday he believes police know who's responsible for the shooting, though no one had been charged as of late Wednesday.

That afternoon, investigators were at the Times Square apartment complex in Elgin where Munez-Ramos lived.

Park Place business owners say Munez-Ramos was a hairstylist in the same strip mall at Elvira's Beauty Salon. They said she was shot by a man after she had locked the salon up for the night, as her boyfriend waited in his car to drive her home.

"The girl's boyfriend ran in and told us someone shot his girlfriend and to call police," said Jose M. Bonilla, owner of Supermercado Los Arcos, next door to the salon. The salon remained closed Wednesday.

Bonilla said the victim was an occasional customer at his grocery store and described her as laid back. He added police arrived within minutes and closed down the strip mall to investigate.

Paramedics took Munez-Ramos to St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates where she was pronounced dead at 8:44 p.m. Tuesday. The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled the death a homicide but said, without elaboration, that her identity had only been tentatively established.

Hanover Park Deputy Police Chief David Webb said he "can safely say" the shooting was not connected with the Nov. 21 stabbing death of Thakkar.

She was killed outside the discount store where she worked, the victim of what authorities said was a robbery. Three suspects have been charged in that case.

Hanover Park reported only one murder last year, none in 2006. Overall, violent crime in the village declined by 10 percent from 2006 to 2007, reflecting a statewide trend, according to statistics released last week by Illinois State Police.

Though saddened by the incidents, Craig lauded local leaders and the police, saying they're doing what it takes to protect the village.

"We do have a community that is safe," he said.

As the stores at Park Place began reopening around 1 p.m. Wednesday, business owners were buzzing with the news of this second Hanover Park homicide. They wondered about the crimes' impact on their customers.

Reynaldo Hernandez owns La Luz de Morelos bakery, two doors down from the hair salon. It was just last week when he got his hair cut from Munez-Ramos. He said he's never seen any problems at the strip mall, but that doesn't mean he's not concerned. His family lives just blocks away.

"I have a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old, I'm worried on what's going on here," Hernandez said.

For K-Nails, another business at Park Place, the holiday usually means more business. But Wednesday, police kept patrons away until the afternoon. Salon worker Susan Wu noted how employees regularly close up late at night. That could pose a problem for a business that typically only attracts females, she said.

Craig said in the aftermath of the stabbing that an increase police presence is needed. Wu said store workers do see police, who routinely patrol the parking lot and drop in to check in on them.

"We tell them we're OK," she said. "But not today."

• Daily Herald staff writers Lee Filas, Lenore Adkins, Larissa Chinwah and Kimberly Pohl contributed to this report.

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