A man was found shot to death in the back of a convenience store at Wabash Avenue and Jackson Street in the Loop this morning, police said.
Police were notified of the shooting at about 8 a.m., said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan. A co-worker had found the man in a back room of the store in the 200 block of South Wabash Avenue, Sullivan said. He had been shot in the head.
The victim was in his 40s, Sullivan said. He did not know if a gun was found on the scene.
A worker at Central Camera at 230 S. Wabash said police had set up crime tape around a convenience store next door.
The convenience store is on the ground floor of the building and police were going in and out of an entrance that appeared to lead upsairs.
UPDATE-
Cops: Man shot dead in Loop store robbery
A man was shot to death during an apparent robbery in a convenience store at Wabash Avenue and Jackson Street in the Loop, police said.
A co-worker found the man, shot in the head, in a back room of the store in the 200 block of South Wabash Avenue at about 8 a.m., according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan.
The man was found in a back office of the store, shot in the back of the head, police said. The man was believed to be in his 40s, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
An investigator on the scene said the shooting apparently occurred during a robbery, but it was not known when it occurred.
The store's door was locked when the co-worker arrived this morning, according to another officer, Lt. Denis Walsh, an Area 3 homicide detective. "We're at the infancy of this investigation," he said.
Walsh said the store usually opens around 7 or 8 a.m. and usually closes around 9 p.m. He said a security guard is usually in the store while it is open.
Clarence Shearer said he was in a nearby Starbucks when he heard sirens and came outside, where he saw police outside the store.
Shearer, 42, said he had been in the store a handful of times.
"I thought maybe it was just a robbery until I got out here and started hearing stories, and, you know, it just doesn't look very good at this point," he said.
Clusters of people have gathered along Wabash since police arrived, speculating about what happened and watching forensics investigators come and go from the store.
Brian Hecht, 36, an attorney who works down the street from the store, said the store serves a mix of DePaul students, people who work in the area and homeless people.
Hecht said the employee he usually saw in the store is a "real nice guy, a real low-key guy."
"He seemed to treat everybody the same," said Hecht, who did not know if the employee he was describing was the person who was found dead.
Several people said a security guard was usually inside the store when it was open.
MORE-
Slain Loop store manager 'did not deserve this . . . He gave to everybody'
For more than two decades, Edward Jernagin spent about 14 hours a day managing a convenience store in the Loop, trading small talk with homeless people and business professionals alike.
As police inspected the store in the 200 block of South Wabash Avenue after a body was found inside Friday morning, dozens of onlookers gathered under the elevated train tracks, some asking, “Is it Ed?”
Police and relatives later said a co-worker found Jernagin dead inside a back office of Wabash Food & Liquors at about 8 a.m., the victim of an apparent robbery. The store’s door was locked when the co-worker arrived, police said.
Jernagin, 57, had been shot in the back of the head, police said. A source indicated a safe was found open in the office.
Police did not say when they believe the shooting occurred, but one of Jernagin's sisters, who lives in an apartment above his home in the city’s South Shore neighborhood, did not hear Jernagin return home Thursday night, his brother George Miles said.
Police were hoping surveillance video from the store or elsewhere in the area could shed some light on the crime. No arrests had been made as of Friday evening.
Police and Jernagin’s relatives said a security guard usually worked in the store, but Miles said the guard often left before the store closed.
Jernagin, who was divorced, was the fifth of 11 siblings and had two adult daughters and six grandchildren, Miles said.
Jernagin worked Sunday through Friday, leaving his home at about 6 a.m. each weekday and opening the store about an hour later, according to his brother. Jernagin usually closed the store at about 9 p.m.
“That’s all he knew. That store was his life,” Miles said. “He was working so hard, he’d sleep on his feet.”
Jernagin enjoyed his job despite the long hours, Miles said. He rarely encountered serious trouble at the store and often used his own money to buy food or drinks from the store for homeless people, Miles said.
“He did not deserve this,” Miles said through tears just minutes after Jernagin's body was removed from the store on a stretcher. “He gave to everybody. He didn't have a hating bone in his body.”
Brian Hecht, 36, an attorney who works down the street from the store, said Jernagin treated all his customers the same.
“All sorts of people would come in and out, and he was always trying to help out whether you were buying a lottery ticket or a Diet Coke or whatever,” said Hecht, who watched for a time as police huddled outside the store. “Everyone was genuinely concerned about him (Friday morning).”
Jernagin’s oldest sister, Mae McGee, said she feared her brother had been killed as soon as she saw the initial news reports about the shooting.
“When somebody has worked a long time and their life is taken away from them at work, that's terrible,” said McGee, who gathered with other relatives Friday afternoon at Jernagin's mother's home in the Woodlawn neighborhood. “He worked hard and tried to take care of his family.”
SHOOTING OCCURED IN THE 1th DISTRICT Beat 123 (Jan. 1, 2011-April 29, 2011)
Shooting- 0
Homicide- 0
Drug Arrests- 67
Robbery- 11
Gun Arrests-1
