Police Seek Suspects After Dollar Store Standoff

February 18, 2011 11:31 AM

Police fired shots during a standoff in a Family Dollar store in the Hegewisch neighborhood. (Credit: CBS)

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Updated 02/18/11 – 4:22 p.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) – Chicago police were out in force in the Hegewisch neighborhood on Friday, searching for the men who robbed a dollar store and then fired at police during a standoff Thursday night.

Police were called to the Family Dollar store in the 13300 block of South Brainard Avenue around 8:30 p.m. Thursday after receiving reports of two men loitering in the parking lot.

As CBS 2′s Suzanne Le Mignot reports, when officers entered the building, at least one of two robbers fired shots at police and officers returned fire, while customers and workers got on the floor for safety.

The robbers got away through a back door. A third suspect was driving a get away vehicle.

Police found a pool of blood in the alley behind the dollar store and several drops of blood were also found throughout the neighborhood.

Sources said the blood is from one of the suspects who was wounded when the robbers exchanged gunfire with police.

Chicago police and Cook County Sheriff’s officers used bloodhounds as they searched nearby alleys and streets in an effort to find the robbers on Friday. The dogs were following the scent left behind by the drops of blood.

U.S. Marshall’s deputies, clad in riot gear and armed with machine guns, also assisted in the search.

One local resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said his friend called police after discovering drops of blood in her gangway and blood in this alley.

“She knew it could have been something to do with last night. She heard about the shooting and all the helicopters and stuff,” he said.

According to a police report, a gang member was bragging on Facebook that there was going to be a robbery and shooting at the dollar store Thursday night and a shooting at nearby Mann Park, stating “We gonna put Hegewisch on the map tonight.”

Sources said Thursday’s robbery was at least the tenth time in a year that the Hegewisch Family Dollar store was the target of a robbery.

“It’s kind of predictable that something like this would happen because I’ve been in there where the girl was all the way in the back room and there’s no one else in there. There’s one person working there,” the witness said.

Sources said that police are reviewing video from nearby police surveillance cameras. Sources also said cameras inside the store might have been instrumental in capturing information and descriptions of the suspects.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.

Police Seek Suspects After Dollar Store Standoff

Catherine

We gonna put Hegewisch on the map tonight? I do not want to live with people who do not want to do the right thing. Those people who do not want to do the right thing and have moved into hegewisch are not welcome here. i worked in Englewood and was very happy to go home at night. Thanking God that I did not live there. my heart sank the day I went home and found a blue light a couple of blocks from my home. I do not want to see people hanging out. I do not want to see people hanging out on corners, I do not want to see garbage in the street, I do not want to worry that I am going to be burglarized or even worse get shot. that is why I chose to live in Hegewisch rather than in Englewood. That is not racism , That is common sense. Back in the 70′s I lived in a neighborhood like Hegewisch, when I would call the police regarding trouble , I was told you better find a different place to live. My mothers home was paid for I lived in a cottage in the rear. There was no mortgage, but gang banging , loud music, hanging out burglaries and fighting, so I moved. I found a place to live where it was quite, clean and I felt secure. Enough is enough. Does Jesse Jackson, or Meeks or any of those other race baiter’s live in Englewood? I think not. I I do not know of anyone who wants to live in chaos. I feel so sorry for those senior citizens who are being terrorized by those thugs on 79th Yates and all up in that area. why should we have to move? They can move, because I am not.
David

I moved over here 18 years ago. I am a single parent that raised 7 kids. I moved here to get away from all the gangs and to live a better life. I lived on a nice quiet block until a bar called the Green Olive opened on the corner a few years ago. Now, the neighborhood has changed for the worst and the alderman should be ashamed of what he let fall in the neighborhood. I cant park in front of my own house. i get harassed by the patrons of the Green olive. I Cant even sell my house. Who would want to buy it let alone let theyr’e kids out. Now the bar is for sale but the damage has been done.

Bob

Thank the smoking ban. The ban needs to be repealed for bars as soon as possible. Bar patrons should be required to remain inside, as they were before the ban.

john

I moved in this area about 8 years ago and it was quiet until section 8 started to come into our area. the condos on brandon came to and of course you hate to pull the race card but nothing but black moved in. Pope has a lot to do with this also letting section 8 move in such a small area, how about moving them in north of 130th? I think not. All I see in the neighborhood now are people walking in the streets when we have sidewalks, people hanging around the corners, I don’t even want my kids walking to the store anymore like how they use to because of the difference. We have a blue light on the corner now.. when is it enough? Kids getting shot for hanging around a pizza place, schools getting broken into, a man got killed in the bank parking lot, the list can go on… all this has happened in the last 2 to 3 years. When is it enough for hegwisch? It has nothing to do with the green olive, old time, beacon, or any other bars in our area. Its the people that our alderman let move in. The ones that own building after building and rent them for section 8. Bob wiess hint hint. Who doesn’t even live in hegwisch anymore. When is it enough?