While most Seaholm students were enjoying a normal weekend at home on May 9th and 10th, three students, junior Connor Ridenour and seniors Nick Ridenour and Dana Sorensen were witnesses to a police shooting on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.
While Sorensen, Connor Ridenour and Nick Ridenour were unsure of what was immediately taking place, they were able to catch the full story on the news later that day.
“We were at the J. Crew,” said Sorensen, “which is right on Michigan Avenue across from the Drake Hotel and the Louis Vuitton store.”
Sorensen was visiting Chicago with the Ridenour family, and recalls having a bird’s eye view of the crime scene.
“Apparently a woman went into the Louis Vuitton store trying to buy a purse with a fake credit card and they called the police,” said Sorensen.
The action happened once the woman exited the store.
“She was trying to get out and she was wrestling with the police trying to get to her accomplice’s car, and apparently they shot her,” said Sorensen.
Connor Ridenour recalls the finer details of the scene.
“She went to the getaway car, which was a black Monte Carlo, and the cop came to arrest her,” said Ridenour. “She fought him for the gun so he had to shoot her.”
Sorensen did not know at the time that a shot was fired, but the commotion going on across the street drew her attention.
“I saw her falling out of the car with two red splotches on her white t-shirt, lying on the pavement,” said Sorensen. “The cop went running, there were police storming everywhere.”
Watching the scene unfold, Sorensen could only watch, in shock, and try to conclude what had happened.
“We didn’t know if she got shot or if she got stabbed, we didn’t know what was going on,” said Sorensen. “We weren’t quite sure if she was innocent, or if there was a madman loose shooting and stabbing people. It was scary.”
The woman, however, was not alone.
“The guy, the passenger [in the getaway car], just got out and ran away, and four undercover cop cars came which is when I first saw them,” said Ridenour.
The man attempted to escape, but went unsuccessful.
“They got out with bulletproof vests on, and chased him down,” said Ridenour.
Sorensen recalled the scene with excitement.
“It was one of the coolest, weirdest things I have ever seen in my entire life,” said Sorensen. “It was like I was watching a Law and Order episode. It was surreal.”
