Police say a dispute between co-workers led to one of them shooting the other multiple times, leaving the victim in critical condition, at a Vernon Hills shopping center.
The Vernon Hills Police Department and Countryside Fire Protection District responded around 6:50 p.m. Thursday to Hawthorn Hills Square Shopping Center, 700 North Milwaukee Avenue, for a report of a shooting.
Officers responding to calls of shots fired found an adult male victim, who is in his 30s, injured near Liquor Barn.
Vernon Hills Deputy Police Chief Shannon Holubetz said the adult male victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Paramedics transported the victim to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where he remains in critical condition as of early Friday morning.
The shooting occurred in the parking lot of the busy shopping center.
The Vernon Hills Police Department asked the public to avoid the shopping center on the southwest corner of Route 60 and Milwaukee Avenue due to the police activity.
Crime scene tape was set up around a portion of the shopping center parking lot as officers with the Lake County Major Crime Task Force investigated.
The offender was at large and police later identified him as Jhonattan Garcia-Nava, 36, of North Chicago.
Garcia-Nava was charged with attempted first-degree murder, a Class X felony. Additional charges are likely.
The Northern Illinois Police Alarm System’s (NIPAS) Emergency Services Team, which is a SWAT team consisting of officers across the region, responded to a home in Waukegan and arrested Garcia-Nava at around 1 a.m. Friday, Holubetz said in an update.
A bystander told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that the SWAT operation occurred in the 800 block of South McAlister Avenue.
Holubetz said multiple firearms were recovered during the execution of the search and arrest warrants.
“There is no longer believed to be a threat to the community, and the Hawthorn Hills Square Shopping Center has been re-opened to the public,” Holubetz said.
The shopping center was closed for several hours as investigators worked at the scene.
An investigation showed Garcia-Nava and the victim, who are co-workers at an area business, were involved in a conflict and argument that resulted in the shooting.
A woman told Lake and McHenry County Scanner she was walking out of a nearby restaurant when the shooting happened.
She said she heard approximately eight shots and then saw many police officers responding.
A man told Lake and McHenry County Scanner he was walking his dog when he heard seven to eight shots fired, followed by sirens a minute later.
Holubetz said the incident remains under an active and ongoing investigation.
Garcia-Nava has been transported to the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan and appeared in First Appearance Court on Friday morning.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain him pending trial.
Lake County Judge Gabriel Conroe ordered Garcia-Nava held in custody until a detention hearing, which he scheduled for Monday afternoon.
Anybody with information is asked to contact the Vernon Hills Police Investigations Unit at 847-247-4893 or Lake County Crime Stoppers at 847-662-2222.