CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Family and friends are remembering the three people who were shot and killed in a seemingly random shooting spree on Saturday afternoon that stretched from Chicago's South Side to north suburban Evanston.
The first shooting victim was identified Sunday by the University of Chicago as 30-year-old Yiran Fan, a Ph.D. student in a joint program of the Booth School of Business and the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics. Fan came from China to study in the United States. He was in the fourth year of his program and hoped to propose his dissertation later this year.
Fan’s family in China has now been notified, and university representatives are in contact to offer support, according to a release from the University of Chicago.
“This is deeply painful news for the university community and our South Side neighborhood,” university officials said in a statement. “The University will provide support for members of our community affected by this incident.”
Fan was shot and killed in the parking garage in the 5300 block of South East End Avenue in Hyde Park around 1:50 p.m. Saturday. Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said the suspected spree killer, Jason Nightengale, 32, entered the garage and shot Fan dead in his car.
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After shooting and killing Fan, Brown said, Nightengale went to nearby apartment building at about 2 p.m. in the 4900 block of South East End Avenue and fired shots at two women, killing one and critically wounding another.
The woman fatally shot was identified as 46-year-old Aisha Nevell, known better as Aisha Johnson. She worked security at the East Hyde Park condominium building.
Her loved ones shared their grief and anger, with CBS 2.
“I talked to her every day – every day,” said Johnson’s cousin, Demetrius Johnson.
“He didn’t have the right to take any of those people’s lives; to do whatever he did. Those families are grieving just like we’re grieving, and I send my prayers and condolences out to them as well, because I know it’s not easy to lose somebody to something senseless and tragic as this. She was special. She was special. She didn’t deserve this.”
The doorwoman leaves behind three brothers and two adult children.
From there, Nightengale went to a building at about 2:45 p.m. in the 5000 block of South East End Avenue and stole a Red Toyota from a person that he knew, police said.
Nightengale then drove to the 9300 block of South Halsted where at about 3:45 p.m. he walked into a store and announced a robbery, police said. He then fired shots, striking a 20-year-old man in the head and an 81-year-old woman multiple times.
The man, identified as 20-year-old Anthony Faulkner, was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The woman was taken to the same hospital in critical condition.
Family members lit candles and released balloons at the crime scene Sunday night to honor Faulkner.
“Anthony was kind, loving, funny,” Faulkner’s cousin, Shapearl Wells told CBS 2. “Our hearts are broken. His family is devastated.”
The family told CBS 2 they were contacted by Nightengale’s family members offering condolences to them.
“No amount of apologies, no amount of sorrow, can bring our loved one back,” Wells said.
Later, at about 5 p.m., Nightengale fired shots in the 10300 block of South Halsted, striking a 15-year-old girl who was riding in a vehicle in the head, police said. The teen was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
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Minutes later, Nightengale drives to the 9200 block of South Halsted Street and fires shots at officers investigating a crime scene, striking a squad car, police said. No officers were hurt.
The attacks ended when police responded at 5:38 p.m. to a CVS store at 101 Asbury Ave. in Evanston after a report of shots fired inside. Officers chased Nightengale when he ran out of the drugstore and into the IHOP across the street, Evanston police said.
Nightengale took a woman hostage and shot her in the neck area before fleeing the restaurant, police said. He ran to a nearby parking lot where he was shot and killed by officers.
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Demetrius Johnson said she would have liked to see Nightengale punished rather than being shot dead by police at the end of the killing spree.
“It makes no sense to me,” she said. “He should have suffered. He should have been in prison the rest of his life and suffered. He got the easy way out, and that wasn’t right.”
A motive behind the spree remains unknown.