BEDFORD PARK, Ill. — A gunman walked into a Chicago-area FedEx shipping facility Thursday morning yelling for his wife, then fired several shots that sent panicked employees fleeing before he fatally shot himself, police said.
Nobody else was injured. The shooter, identified as 28-year-old Benyamin Robinson of Chicago, was found dead in a vehicle inside the facility a short time later, Bedford Park Police Chief Daniel Godfrey said.
The gunman was not an employee of the 24-hour 183,000-square foot shipping facility, about 15 miles southwest of Chicago, but his wife was.
Godfrey said police received a call of a domestic dispute around 8 a.m., and while en route to the scene, received calls of shots being fired.
The gunman had entered the building “and was yelling his wife’s name,” Godfrey said. “She had hunkered down in her office until she was evacuated by law enforcement.”
Godfrey said Robinson and his wife had been having “recent problems.” He said he believed they had three children, who were found safe at another location.
Dozens of employees fled to neighboring businesses and several law enforcement agencies helped other workers out of the building. Meanwhile, police used a remote camera to identify the gunman and look for any victims, Cook County Sheriff’s spokesman Frank Bilecki said.
Monica Rosales was working as office manager at Ole Mexican Foods across the street when FedEx workers began pounding on the locked door, asking to get inside.
“They were calm, but a little scared,” said Rosales, who helped open the main doors for the workers. She said they were there for about 15 or 20 minutes before police told them it was safe to leave.
The FedEx facility has 67 full-time employees, and about 35 were present at the time, said FedEx spokesman Bryson Thornton.
“We are just relieved there are no other injuries,” he said.
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