Old Navy shooting costs 2 lives

A man shot and killed an Old Navy employee and turned his gun on himself inside the clothing store’s Loop location this morning, an apparent murder-suicide that left customers and employees scrambling into traffic on State Street, sources said.

“He just came in and got her, shot her,” a shocked employee standing outside the store on State Street said.

“Oh my god, I just talked to her this morning. I just talked to her,” another employee wailed.

The shooting is being investigated as a domestic-related murder-suicide. Early reports suggested that the dead man and women were dating.

Chicago Police Chief of Patrol Eugene Williams said the victims knew each other and “right now we’re looking into the possibility of some relationship between” the dead.

The shots were fired just before 11 a.m. at the store at 35 N. State Street. Williams said investigators found the dead in the basement, a restricted employee-only area.

“Once in that area, we found two people laying in that area, deceased,” Williams said.

At 11 a.m., a patrol car drove past the store when police noticed employees of the store streaming out of the building and flagging down police saying there had been a shooting inside.

When police walked in they found the man and woman, both in their 20s, dead in the basement. According to Williams, they believe the man walked in with a gun.

Northbound lanes of State Street were closed to traffic as police investigated the shooting. The victims have not been identified.

The Old Navy location is in Chicago’s popular Loop shopping district. The man is said to have shot the woman several times in an employee-only area of the store’s basement before shooting himself. No one else was hurt, but the incident sent panicked customers and employees running from the store.