A SWAT team overnight arrested a gunman, who is being charged with attempted murder, accused of shooting and critically injuring a person at a Vernon Hills shopping center.
Jhonattan Garcia-Nava, 36, of North Chicago, was charged with attempted first-degree murder, a Class X felony.
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 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 Garcia-Nava.
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.
“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.
A preliminary investigation shows the shooting stemmed from an altercation between two parties known to each other.
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.
Police officials said they will continue to release additional information.
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.