Shooting at the Smoke N Gun

Listening to the Waukegan Police frequency, I just heard there was a shooting at the Smoke N Gun (gun and tobacco store) on Washington Street. From what I gathered so far, an employee had to fire three shots into someone for some reason. Further, an employee also may be injured. Police and rescue are on the scene. Flight for life is on the way.

UPDATE: Flight for Life has left with the victim (police referred to him as the offender). For the rest of the story, I will probably have to wait and read it in the papers.

UPDATE:

March 4, 2009
NEWS-SUN PRESS SERVICES
Three suspects are in custody and an employee injured during a shooting at the Smoke 'N Gun store in Waukegan early Wednesday afternoon.

Details are sketchy at the moment, but police say the incident happened at about 1:30pm when an unidentified employee of the gun shop located at 2010 Washington St. shot one of the suspects. The suspect was later taken to a nearby hospital by Flight for Life.

The employee suffered unknown injuries and was taken to Vista West where his condition is unknown. Police are still at the scene of the shooting but have reopened Washington Street to traffic.

UPDATE:

March 4, 2009
BY FRANK ABDERHOLDEN fabderholden@scn1.com
Three offenders were in custody after an incident at Schrank's Smoke'N Gun in Waukegan that ended with one offender being shot three times and flown by Flight for Life to a nearby hospital. An employee was also being treated at another area hospital.

Waukegan Police Chief William Biang said they couldn't say if the three were actually trying to hold-up the gun shop frequented by many Lake County police officers or if there was some other crime like shoplifting going on.
"We have it all on tape and we are still trying to determine what happened," he said.

Two men who didn't want to be identified had an appointment to sell or trade some guns, but couldn't because of the dozen police vehicles and ambulance at the shop at 2010 Washington St.

"If we had come 15 minutes earlier we would have been in there," said one man. They were both amazed anyone would try anything in the store because employees openly carry weapons and the manager of the store is a marksman who teaches shooting classes.

The incident occurred around 1:45 p.m. with police radio traffic describing that someone was shot three times inside the store and an employee was holding an offender at gunpoint. Police at the scene confirmed that information.

Biang said the shooting was in close quarters and he did not know if the employee was hit by a slug from his own gun or only suffered muzzle burns. "We don't have all the specific details," he said.

Two men outside the store were taken into custody. Biang said they had been inside the store with the other suspect at one point and that was why they were taken onto custody.

Washington Street was shut down for about a half an hour and nearby Waukegan High School was put on lock down where no students or teachers were allowed to leave the building.

Police had told the school to put "Code White" into effect, which means everyone stays put, said Biang, but the school instead issued a "Code Red" which is for when a gunman is inside the school. Either way, students were not able to leave the building.

UPDATE:
According to WBBM Radio (click here for printed report at their website) a man went behind the counter of the gun store and was confronted by an employee, there was an altercation and the employee shot the man twice in the chest and once in the leg. Police say they have reviewed the security video and said it appears that the man was trying to rob the gun store.