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Arkansas Man Shot Dead After Asking for Directions, Police Say

By Emily Morris | October 17, 2013 8:07am | Updated on October 17, 2013 11:37am
 An Arkansas man was taken to Stroger Hospital after being shot five times, police say.
An Arkansas man was taken to Stroger Hospital after being shot five times, police say.
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Cook County

CHICAGO — An Arkansas man was shot after he and a friend stopped to ask for directions Thursday morning, authorities said.

Robert Franklin, 55, and his friend were driving around and got lost, according to Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police Department spokesman, and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

When they stopped and asked for directions, Estrada said, a man pulled out a gun and got into the car with them.

The gunman took cash from them and got out, Estrada said. He then turned and shot into the car, hitting the 55-year-old man several times in his back. The shooting happened about 3:55 a.m., police said.

The man's friend, who was driving, took Franklin to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:06 a.m., according to Estrada and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

Because they were lost, the man's friend couldn't tell police where the shooting happened, police said. It was unclear how the driver found the hospital.

No one was in custody for the shooting, and it didn't appear that the man's friend was hurt.

Franklin was from Blytheville, Ark., according to the morgue.

It was unclear why he was in the city, but a neighbor reached by phone, who declined to give her name, said Franklin lived in Chicago years ago before his family moved.