Bridgeview shooting raised fears of another mass killing

A shooting that took place in the parking lot of a Drivers License facility operated by the Illinois Secretary of State in Bridgeview raised immediate fears of yet another mass shooting. Fortunately, it was restricted to a personal grievance between two people. Unfortunately one of the individuals was shot and killed in an ongoing tragedy of gun violence that plagues communities across the country

By Ray Hanania

The news media was calling from around the country reporting that they heard there was a mass shooting that took place in an Illinois Secretary of State’s drivers facility in Bridgeview, a southwest suburb of Chicago.

The story was of high interest to editors calling from Florida, New York and Los Angeles because only a few days before, a young man was arrested after killing `10 people at a supermarket chain in Boulder, Colorado. It was even more intense because the Boulder mass shooting was the 7th horrific shooting tragedy to take place in the past several months.

Fortunately, the Bridgeview tragedy was nothing similar to the Colorado shootings of the one the week before in Atlanta where a man killed eight woman at massage parlors there.

The Bridgeview shooting was just a strategic, of course, as one young man was shot while int he parking lot of the Secretary of State facility in Bridgeview at 7368 W. 87th Street. Witnesses reported that at least one individual walked up the victim and shot him several times. The victim was taken to Christ Hospital where he later was pronounced dead.

The shooter got into a car and then fled the scene but the car was quickly identified and chased by Bridgeview and then Oak Lawn Police. They followed the suspect vehicle to an intersection near 99th and Roberts Road where they pulled over and tried to flee on foot. Two suspects ran out of the car including the suspected shooter, but police were able to apprehend both before anyone else could be hurt.

Bridgeview Police Chief Ricardo Mancha decided the best thing to do was release the information on the ongoing investigation immediately. Normally, police procedure it to hold information until it can be confirmed which often can take hours and even days. But in this case, with the word getting out as fast as it does on Social Media, Chief Macha decided the information had to released quickly so as not to fuel mistaken speculation that the Bridgeview incident was another one in the series of mass shootings that have shocked the nation.

Initial reports were updated quickly to the media to ensure they understood that police doing the early investigation believed that it was a personal matter between two individuals and not a case involving someone who had gone berserk shooting innocent bystanders.

The killing of the victim, whose name has not yet been released late Wednesday, is a serious tragedy, but police believe it involved a personal issue between the two individuals. No other individuals at the facility were in jeopardy other than being near the shooting.

Bridgeview police received support from many Police Departments including the Oak Lawn Police Departments and police in Worth and Palos Heights. The investigation resulte din two suspected being arrested within 90 minutes of the incident, containing the violence.

Good job Bridgeview Police and Chief Ricardo Macha.

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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