UPDATES WITH COOK COUNTY SHERIFF’S STATEMENT
(BRIDGEVIEW) A Cook County correctional officer apparently shot herself in the head late Sunday after she opened fire and critically wounded a father and daughter in southwest suburban Bridgeview.
Erika Aguirre, 28, shot two people at a home in the 7200 block of South Roberts Road before taking her own life, according to a statement from the Cook County sheriff’s office. Aguirre worked as a correctional officer, and was not related to the victims, but authorities called the shooting a “domestic incident.”
Neighbors called police at 11:32 p.m. when they saw a woman, dressed in black and carrying a gun, walking around the house, according to Bridgeview Police Chief Walter Klimek.
The woman broke the glass in a basement window well to enter the house, Klimek said. The neighbors then reported they heard gunfire.
Officers responded to the home, looked through a window and saw a person lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen, Klimek said. The 5th District SWAT unit, comprised of members from police departments from the 5th District Circuit Court area, was then called to the scene.
The unit entered the home and found the woman dead in the kitchen, Klimek said.
Two more people, a 27-year-old woman and her 52-year-old father, were found critically wounded in the downstairs area of the home, Klimek said. They had both been shot and were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Aguirre suffered a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police believe.
According to the sheriff’s office, Aguirre worked in the Cook County Jail’s intake division, where inmates are processed in and out. She had been employed by the sheriff’s office for four years.
“The thoughts and prayers of Sheriff Dart and our staff are with the victims of this horrific tragedy,” the statement said.
