By MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
Chicago Sun-Times
Alma B. Hernandez of Tinley Park died when her ex-boyfriend walked into a Loop loan store where she worked Friday afternoon and fatally shot her before turning the gun on himself, police said.
Alma Hernandez | Baird & Warner
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said the murder-suicide was domestic in nature. He said the man entered the store, walked to the rear of the store, shot the woman twice, then walked back to the front of the store and took his own life.
“It looks like a murder-suicide right now, domestic-related. Both shot. She’s shot a couple of times, he’s shot once in the head,” McCarthy told reporters at the scene. “We’re checking whether or not there were reports made of a domestic history between a female who works at the location and an ex-boyfriend.”
McCarthy added that a gun was recovered, and the man had a concealed carry permit, but police were investigating whether the man was licensed to carry the specific gun used.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the dead as 45-year-old Richard Idrovo and the 44-year-old Hernandez. Both lived in the 17700 block of Flannagan Court in Tinley Park.
Police converged on the AmeriCash Loans store just after 2:30 p.m. Friday near the corner of Van Buren and Wells, cordoning off a 50-feet area in front of a strip of storefront shops on Van Buren.
Many workers poured out of surrounding office buildings trying to find out what happened. They included Darlene Matos, 25, who until recently had worked for AmeriCash loans and knew one of the employees in the store.
“I worked for the company, at a different store, up until December, and my former district manager was working at this store here today. I’ve been calling her cellphone and it keeps going to voicemail,” Matos said. “I can’t believe this. I’m really worried for her.”
Matos said she worked for AmeriCash Loans for two years before leaving to work for a different loan company in an office building directly across the street. Every AmeriCash store she worked at had bullet-proof glass protecting employees, she said.
“When you work in this business, people come in off the street and you never know who’s coming in,” she said.
Jennifer Kerrigan, 53, a legal assistant at a law firm in the same office building across from AmeriCash, said she came outside for a cigarette just before 3 p.m. and saw police swarming the store.
“I’ve worked in this building 20 years, and nothing like this has ever happened,” Kerrigan said.
Besides AmeriCash, the strip of stores includes Chicken Planet, Dunkin Donuts, Downtown Tobacco, Tokyo Lunchboxes Catering and Taco Burrito King.