TINLEY PARK, Ill. – It has been six months to the day since I visited my mother, only to find a police squad car parked at the end of her block, and a uniformed officer questioning everybody who wanted to get past him.
My mother lives in this southwestern suburb exactly 20 blocks north of the Brookside Marketplace shopping center, which was the site of a Lane Bryant store where five female shoppers were shot to death (and a sixth was wounded).
TO DATE, THERE are no suspects publicly identified, just some drawings indicating police think the gunman was African-American with braided hair. There definitely is no one in custody facing criminal charges for any of the deaths.
What there is, is a community that is trying to get past the incident in the way everybody has to get on with their lives following death. Police, when questioned, make a point of saying that criminal investigations take time to complete.
That’s true.
The days of Joe Friday collecting “just the facts, ma’am,” and solving a criminal case in 22 minutes were never reality, and the idea that modern science makes it possible to solve a case beyond appeal within an hour’s show (a la the various “CSI” programs) isn’t real either.
POLICE IN THE suburb on the Cook/Will county line obviously are feeling the pressure of not having someone in custody six months after the crime (most people would only have been satisfied if the gunman had been shot dead by police six seconds after the crime was committed).
Why else would the two Chicago metro daily newspapers be offered up stories about progress in the criminal investigation?
The Chicago Tribune story from Friday intrigued me the most.
Implying that the store manager’s ties to her church in Crest Hill, Ill. (which since has relocated to Austin, Texas) might somehow be relevant to this case would elevate the slayings from the level of a third-rate robbery gone violent that so many people took as gospel since the incident occurred to that of a complex crime that justifiably takes time to resolve.
OF COURSE, POLICE are quick to say they haven’t confirmed that the church ties (specifically, the store manager’s withdrawal from the church two years ago) are relevant.
But it gives local residents something to speculate over, aside from the theories I have heard from locals when visiting my mother about how the gunman went east on Interstate 80, and somehow managed to get out of the country and is now relaxing on a beach in Jamaica.
So what are the locals thinking these days? People I spoke to Friday mostly pleaded ignorance about the case.
Nobody knows nothin’, and the few who had much of anything to say were more disgusted that the criminal investigation is not yet a closed case.
“I JUST WANT to know who did it, and know that he is in the process of being punished,” said Suzanne Holt, a Frankfort resident who was shopping Friday at the Sally Beauty Supply store located directly next door to the now-shuttered Lane Bryant.
Most of those who I spoke to were not enthused about being identified, but they said they were more focused on their lives now, rather than dwelling on what happened six months ago today.
In fact, that seemed to be the general mood around the Brookside Marketplace, which is a huge shopping center for which the label “strip mall” really does not apply.
With a “Super Target,” a “Kohl’s” and a “Best Buy” anchoring it, and many other smaller stores also present, it is easy to overlook the Lane Bryant store, whose windows remain covered with brown paper and a sign posted near the locked entrance says the store remains “closed until further notice.”
BUT AS EVIDENCE that there once was commerce taking place here, another sign remains from the “old” days – one that informs customers in pink and white lettering that they can purchase “Instant gift Cheques” for $25.
It’s not like the rest of the shopping center has become a retail ghost town like the one-time Dixie Square Shopping Center in Harvey, Ill., which sat in decay for years until it was finally demolished – and its vacant lot remaining as a sign of what could have been.
Construction equipment literally can be seen along the edge of the development, building yet another structure that (from its appearance and specific location) will slop fast food onto store customers, which will turn the duo of Taco Bell and Arby’s into a junk food trio.
The vacant Lane Bryant (which has its store sign above the entrance remaining in place) has immediate neighbors with their share of business on Friday. Stores such as “Dinner by Design” and “Back to Bed” had their typical mid-day level of customers.
BASICALLY, CUSTOMERS WERE hustling and bustling into the shopping center’s main stores, providing people of this developing area just off Interstate 80 and Harlem Avenue a place to spend their money.
In short, the shopping center’s owners appear to have no intention of giving in to the criminal notoriety that their retail development now has.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Is a cellular telephone call routed through a nearby tower a clue to finding the gunman (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lane_bryant_webaug01,0,1642159.story) who shot and killed five women back in February at a Tinley Park shopping center?
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that police are wondering if the Tinley Park quintuple slayings are related in any way (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1085902,CST-NWS-lane01.article) to a quintuple slaying on the South Side, for which three men already are in police custody.
My mother lives in this southwestern suburb exactly 20 blocks north of the Brookside Marketplace shopping center, which was the site of a Lane Bryant store where five female shoppers were shot to death (and a sixth was wounded).
TO DATE, THERE are no suspects publicly identified, just some drawings indicating police think the gunman was African-American with braided hair. There definitely is no one in custody facing criminal charges for any of the deaths.
What there is, is a community that is trying to get past the incident in the way everybody has to get on with their lives following death. Police, when questioned, make a point of saying that criminal investigations take time to complete.
That’s true.
The days of Joe Friday collecting “just the facts, ma’am,” and solving a criminal case in 22 minutes were never reality, and the idea that modern science makes it possible to solve a case beyond appeal within an hour’s show (a la the various “CSI” programs) isn’t real either.
POLICE IN THE suburb on the Cook/Will county line obviously are feeling the pressure of not having someone in custody six months after the crime (most people would only have been satisfied if the gunman had been shot dead by police six seconds after the crime was committed).Why else would the two Chicago metro daily newspapers be offered up stories about progress in the criminal investigation?
The Chicago Tribune story from Friday intrigued me the most.
Implying that the store manager’s ties to her church in Crest Hill, Ill. (which since has relocated to Austin, Texas) might somehow be relevant to this case would elevate the slayings from the level of a third-rate robbery gone violent that so many people took as gospel since the incident occurred to that of a complex crime that justifiably takes time to resolve.
OF COURSE, POLICE are quick to say they haven’t confirmed that the church ties (specifically, the store manager’s withdrawal from the church two years ago) are relevant.
But it gives local residents something to speculate over, aside from the theories I have heard from locals when visiting my mother about how the gunman went east on Interstate 80, and somehow managed to get out of the country and is now relaxing on a beach in Jamaica.
So what are the locals thinking these days? People I spoke to Friday mostly pleaded ignorance about the case.
Nobody knows nothin’, and the few who had much of anything to say were more disgusted that the criminal investigation is not yet a closed case.
“I JUST WANT to know who did it, and know that he is in the process of being punished,” said Suzanne Holt, a Frankfort resident who was shopping Friday at the Sally Beauty Supply store located directly next door to the now-shuttered Lane Bryant.
Most of those who I spoke to were not enthused about being identified, but they said they were more focused on their lives now, rather than dwelling on what happened six months ago today.
In fact, that seemed to be the general mood around the Brookside Marketplace, which is a huge shopping center for which the label “strip mall” really does not apply.
With a “Super Target,” a “Kohl’s” and a “Best Buy” anchoring it, and many other smaller stores also present, it is easy to overlook the Lane Bryant store, whose windows remain covered with brown paper and a sign posted near the locked entrance says the store remains “closed until further notice.”
BUT AS EVIDENCE that there once was commerce taking place here, another sign remains from the “old” days – one that informs customers in pink and white lettering that they can purchase “Instant gift Cheques” for $25.
It’s not like the rest of the shopping center has become a retail ghost town like the one-time Dixie Square Shopping Center in Harvey, Ill., which sat in decay for years until it was finally demolished – and its vacant lot remaining as a sign of what could have been.
Construction equipment literally can be seen along the edge of the development, building yet another structure that (from its appearance and specific location) will slop fast food onto store customers, which will turn the duo of Taco Bell and Arby’s into a junk food trio.
The vacant Lane Bryant (which has its store sign above the entrance remaining in place) has immediate neighbors with their share of business on Friday. Stores such as “Dinner by Design” and “Back to Bed” had their typical mid-day level of customers.
BASICALLY, CUSTOMERS WERE hustling and bustling into the shopping center’s main stores, providing people of this developing area just off Interstate 80 and Harlem Avenue a place to spend their money.
In short, the shopping center’s owners appear to have no intention of giving in to the criminal notoriety that their retail development now has.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Is a cellular telephone call routed through a nearby tower a clue to finding the gunman (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lane_bryant_webaug01,0,1642159.story) who shot and killed five women back in February at a Tinley Park shopping center?
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that police are wondering if the Tinley Park quintuple slayings are related in any way (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1085902,CST-NWS-lane01.article) to a quintuple slaying on the South Side, for which three men already are in police custody.
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