2 workers shot at Lake Co. restaurant
Lake County sheriff's police are asking the public's assistance in finding two men who shot two employees of a popular restaurant near Lake Bluff during an attempted robbery Sunday night.
Sgt. Christopher Thompson said investigators were still gathering details Monday, including viewing video surveillance of the Silo Restaurant in the hopes of capturing an image of both the offenders.
Investigators will likely release a police sketch and video still images of the suspects as early as tomorrow, he said.
Thompson said the incident was "eerily similar in many ways" to the 1993 massacre of seven people in a Palatine restaurant.
Thompson said the two suspects entered the Silo Restaurant on Route 176 just before 9 p.m. Sunday and ordered a meal it took them more than an hour to consume.
When the waitress bought the check, Thompson said, the two men grabbed her and attempted to herd six or seven employees into a closet.
The robbers were demanding the cell phones of everyone inside the restaurant as they tried to corral the witnesses.
At one point, Thompson said, one of the people inside the restaurant broke from the crowd and ran for a back exit.
A single shot was fired, which missed the running person but struck one employee in the arm, passed through the arm and entered the back of a second employee.
The bullet became lodged in the second employee's abdomen, Thompson said. That person is in intensive care at Lake Forest Hospital.
The second employee is expected to be released from the hospital today, Thompson said.
He noted that the suspects in the 1993 murders at Brown's Chicken in Palatine also attempted to confine witnesses during the robbery and at least one ate in the restaurant before the robbery began.
"Obviously, we are dealing with some extremely dangerous people here," Thompson said. "We need anyone who has any information about this matter to contact us immediately."
Thompson said anyone with information should call the investigations division at (847) 377-4250.