An Iowa man with an extensive criminal background is wanted in shootings Saturday night at a River North hotel and apartment complex that left one woman dead inside a room and another wounded in the lobby.
Officers responded about 8:15 p.m. to a call of a shooting and found a 29-year-old woman shot in the neck in the lobby of the building at 369 W. Grand Ave., according to the Chicago Police Department and an incident report.
The woman was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and listed in good condition, police said.
A hotel employee told police the suspect came to the front desk to get a spare key to his room, but was rebuffed because he didn’t have identification, the report says. The suspect then went to an SUV and returned to the lobby, where he shot and wounded one woman.
Before opening fire, the suspect provided his identification to hotel staff, who photocopied it, according to a law enforcement source.
The hotel employee who witnessed the shooting recalled ducking behind the front desk, hearing a single gunshot and seeing the suspect drive off in his SUV, the report says.
Two officers later entered a room on the 30th floor to ensure the suspect hadn’t returned, the report says. A 32-year-old woman was found suffering from gunshot wounds to her back and right shoulder and was taken to Northwestern, where she was pronounced dead. That death has been ruled a homicide by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, but the office has not released her name.
The suspect — a 35-year-old man from Davenport, Iowa —remains at large, police said. Area Three detectives are investigating.
Public records show the suspect has a long history of arrests. Last month, he was charged with illegally possessing a gun as a felon in Rock Island County, about 170 miles southwest of Chicago. The case is ongoing, court records show.
Chicago police on Saturday night responded to a report of a shooting in this building at 369 W. Grand Ave. There, in the lobby, they found a 29-year-old woman shot in the neck. That woman survived, but another woman, found shot in a room upstairs, was pronounced dead later at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The building where the shootings occurred houses the 369 Grand luxury apartments and Level River North, a hotel developed by the same owner that offers “nightly and extended stays.” All rooms are served by one lobby.
A high-rise apartment dweller, who asked to remain anonymous fearing reprisal for speaking out, said the shooting in the lobby erupted just minutes after they picked up a food delivery there.
The resident complained the hotel portion of the building attracts sketchy guests who are incompatible with the renters who “pay lots of money to live in this building.”
Management has recently required people to use a key to enter at certain times and barred delivery drivers from taking food to residents’ front doors, according to the resident, but the policies are selectively enforced.
The resident noted it took the staff roughly two hours to send an email saying there was “a police matter” being investigated at the building. Although management provided scant information, many residents by then already knew there had been a shooting.
“We don’t feel safe here,” the resident said. “We have safety concerns and are thinking about asking to leave the lease.”
The building developer, Onni Group, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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