For most people "a deal to die for" is just a saying, but tragically for a 22-year-old woman who was working in a Chicago Nordstroms off North Michigan Avenue it became all too real when she shot during Black Friday shopping and died a day later, in what according to initial reports was a domestic-related incident leading to a panicked stampede out of the store by holiday shoppers who were convinced they were caught in the latest Chicago consumerism-gone-wild crossfire.
AP reports [6]that Nadia Ezaldein, 22, who was a seasonal employee at the store, was pronounced dead at 3:43 p.m. on Saturday. Authorities say the shooter was 31-year-old Marcus Dee, who fired on Ezaldein before killing himself.
Officers found her dead when they arrived Friday night at the store along Chicago's Magnificent Mile shopping district. The store was closed Saturday and was to reopen on Sunday. Nordstrom spokeswoman Tara Darrow called the shootings a "really sad and scary situation." She says the company is doing its best to support employees.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the 31-year-old shooter was targeting his "girlfriend or ex-girlfriend," said John Escalante, chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department.
"She was working up on the second floor when he approached her, fired one shot, which struck her," Escalante said on the scene. "He then turned the gun to himself and shot and killed himself."
Responders found the gunman dead when they arrived, and the 22-year-old woman was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition, Escalante said. The shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. Friday.
More from the Tribune [7]:
According to a police report, the shooter, identified as Marcus Dee, approached the woman at the store and they spoke with each other. He took out a gun, and as the woman walked away from him, he shot her in the head/neck area before shooting himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene at approximately 10:23 p.m., the report said.
The crowded store, at 55 E. Grand Ave. in the Shops at North Bridge mall on North Michigan Avenue, was hurriedly emptied of holiday shoppers after the shooting, according to witnesses.
The Nordstrom store will be closed Saturday, according to its website. The other stores in the shopping center are open Saturday, according to mall.
"This is an active scene, an ongoing investigation, but again I can tell you it is domestic-related," Escalante said.
To the present masses of people chasing after Black Friday deals in the store, the cause for the shooting was irrelevant: shoppers at the store described panic and chaos caused by the shooting.
Michelle Smith, 47, was buying purses with her daughter Krystal, 25, when they suddenly heard two gunshots right after the other. "It was a pow and a pow," said Michelle Smith. "It was a stampede coming down the escalator."
Suzanne Nanos-Gusching was on the third floor with her daughter who was trying on a dress for a sorority formal at the University of Michigan when shots rang out. Soon after, employees were trying to clear the building.
"We just saw people running out, and they (the employees) rushed her to get dressed," said Nanos-Gusching. "They were adamant about getting us out of the building."
Michael Nelson, who works at a watch boutique in the Nordstrom building in the mall, said he saw people clamoring to leave without realizing what had happened. "They looked scared, people were falling over each other (to get out)," said Nelson.
The only silver lining: the murder was not related to angry - and well-armed - Black Friday Chicago shoppers taking each other out in pursuit of the latest "must have" 55 inch LCD TV.
