(Elmwood Park Police)
Surveillance video showing a wild shootout at an Illinois gas station that left a 43-year-old Chicago man dead has been released by the Elmwood Park Police Department.
Ronald Morales was killed in the April 8 shooting at a BP gas station, and the other shooter, whose name has not been released, was found to have acted in self defense and was not charged, the Chicago Tribune reports. The surviving gunman was not injured.
Elmwood Park Police said in a press release the shooting happened just before 5 p.m. after Morales left the gas station’s convenience store and “made eye contact” with a man who was pumping gas. According to police, Morales went to his car and got a gun while the man pumping gas got into the driver’s seat of his car. Police said that man saw Morales coming to him and felt he was in danger, so he armed himself with his own gun.
The video shows Morales opening the passenger’s side door of the other man’s car and talking to him. He then closes the door as the other man steps out of the driver’s door. The two men point their guns at each other and begin firing over the top of the car. A woman driving an SUV can be seen ducking down in her seat as she tries to drive away. Morales then runs from the scene, but police say he was wounded and later died. The other man gets back into his car and drives off.
You can watch the video below (Warning – Graphic):
According to the Tribune, the Elmwood Park Police Department credited the gas station’s surveillance video with helping investigators corroborate eyewitness accounts of what happened. Police say they were able to confirm that the man who survived the shootout was acting in self-defense.
“The gas station has a state-of-the-art camera system that provided us with excellent video footage allowing us to quickly get to the truth in this case,” Elmwood Park Police Chief Frank Fagiano said in a statement.
Police marked at least 14 shell casings in the parking lot of the gas station, located at 75th and Grand Avenue.
“I was just in my living room and I heard pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, and I looked up and though no that can’t be what I thought it was,” Kate Valles told WBBM-TV.
“Out of all places that you wouldn’t expect something like this to happen,” said Chris Szarejko, another neighbor, told the news station. “This is definitely it. And it happened. So for us Elmwood Parkers, its something else.”
Fagiano said in a statement, “This was an unfortunate and isolated incident. But in the end, it was determined that the individual acted in self-defense. We are happy that no innocent citizens were injured.”
The chief told the Chicago Tribune the shooting was not drug or gang related.
“It appears that the initial shot was by Morales,” he said. “We don’t know the reason why Morales would do that.”
