Man shoots girlfriend, kills self in Chicago Nordstrom store

(Reuters) – A man shot his girlfriend before fatally shooting himself inside a Chicago Nordstrom on Friday, police said, sending black Friday shoppers scattering from the store.

The shooting took place on the second floor of the high-end retailer around 8:30 p.m., said Chicago Police spokesman Officer Ron Gaines.

The man was declared dead at the scene. The woman, who worked at the store, was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition, Gaines added.

“It was a pow and a pow,” Michelle Smith, a 47-year-old shopper in the store at the time of the shooting, told the Chicago Tribune. “It was a stampede coming down the escalator.”

Further details were not immediately available.

Images broadcast by NBC Chicago showed several officers cordoning off the entrance to the store in the popular shopping destination known as the “Magnificent Mile”.