Jason Nightengale and the 2021 Chicago-Evanston Shooting Spree
Overview
Jason Nightengale was a 32-year-old Chicago man responsible for a deadly series of apparently random shootings across Chicago and neighboring Evanston, Illinois, on January 9, 2021. During a rampage lasting several hours, Nightengale attacked people in a parking garage, residential buildings, a convenience store, a vehicle and an IHOP restaurant. Five victims ultimately died, two women were seriously wounded and several other people were threatened or endangered. Nightengale was killed during a confrontation with Evanston police officers that evening. Investigators did not establish a clear motive connecting him to the people he attacked.
The First Killing in Hyde Park
The shooting spree began at approximately 1:50 p.m. on January 9, 2021, in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. Nightengale entered a parking garage connected to the Regents Park apartment complex near the 5300 block of South East End Avenue. Inside the garage, he approached a vehicle occupied by 30-year-old Yiran Fan and shot him.
Fan was a doctoral student studying financial economics at the University of Chicago. He had been sitting inside his vehicle when he was attacked and had no known connection to Nightengale. Fan was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. His killing became the first confirmed attack in a sequence that moved south through Chicago before reaching Evanston.
Attack at the East End Avenue Apartment Building
Nightengale next entered an apartment building at 4940 South East End Avenue. Once inside, he encountered 46-year-old Aisha Johnson, who worked as the building's door attendant. Nightengale shot Johnson, killing her at the front desk where she had been performing her job.
A 77-year-old resident was also attacked after entering the building's lobby to collect her mail. Nightengale shot the woman in the head. She survived but was critically injured. The woman's identity was not publicly released. Nightengale then left the building and continued moving through the South Side.
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