Man who allegedly shot daughter turns gun on himself
By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
On Wednesday, Oct. 2 at about 8:30 p.m., the Independent learned that police had been summoned to the parking lot of Elmhurst Memorial Hospital on the report of an alleged shooting incident. Hospital officials notified police at about 7 p.m. that there was a man who reportedly had a gun in the parking lot.
It was confirmed later in the evening that the man’s daughter had run into the Emergency Room at Elmhurst Hospital, shouting that her father had shot her.
While she was being treated inside, the man reportedly returned to his vehicle and fatally shot himself.
The male was identified as 73-year-old Robert Shek, who resided in the 300 block of south Rex in Elmhurst.
The female was 44-year-old Imelda Shek, who has been transported to Loyola Hospital and is undergoing treatment. Police arrived at the scene within minutes and found Shek in the west parking lot in a vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound. He was brought into the emergency room by Elmhurst Fire Department Paramedics for treatment and died a short time later. The woman initially told police that her father had shot her and then shot himself in the hospital parking lot.
During the course of the response, the hospital was briefly placed on lockdown to ensure the safety of the patients and staff. The incident was contained to the parking lot of the hospital and the lockdown was quickly lifted and routine operations resumed.
This incident remains under investigation.
It should be noted that some reports indicated the woman was the man’s daughter, while others said it was his stepdaughter. This could not be confirmed at press time.
Hospital official explains as details emerge
According to hospital spokesman Keith Hartenberger, at about 7:11 p.m., hospital officials had been notified that a man had shot his daughter in the parking lot at 155 E. Brush Hill Road.
“The father apparently allegedly shot the daughter in the face, and then somehow, she made it into the ER,” Hartenberger said. “He shot and killed himself in his vehicle.”
The hospital briefly went on lockdown Hartenberger said, but no one else was reported as injured. As of 7:45 p.m., hospital operations were returning to normal.
For a brief period during lockdown, ER patients were not allowed in or out.
Witness at the scene
Alice Gorecka, a 24-year-old Wood Dale resident who was waiting in the ER with her husband, was a witness at the scene. She happened to be facing the sliding doors when the woman came running in.
“She was yelling, ’My dad shot me,’” Gorecka said.
When the hospital then went on lockdown, Gorecka and her husband were moved to a safer area of the hospital.
“It was definitely scary,” she said. “We had to walk back to those doors [where the victim had entered]. And it was scary. What if the guy was out there? We heard the dad was still out in the parking lot. What if he ran in?”
Police said the situation was deemed “not an active shooter,” according to Hartenberger, even though early reports of the incidents came in that way.
“No other injuries have happened and nobody at the hospital is in danger,” he said.
The identities of neither the deceased man nor the daughter were released as of this report.
This story will be updated as more details become available.
