COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — An Edgewater man accused of grabbing a police officer's gun and opening fire in the heart of Andersonville on Valentine's Day was ordered held on $500,000 bail.
Police tried to detain Thomas Thompson, 33, about 8 p.m. Saturday after they saw him try to leave a Walgreens at 5440 N. Clark St. without paying, according to a police report.
Court records show Thompson was allegedly trying to abscond with roughly $157 worth of vitamins and vitamin supplements.
He fought with the arresting officers, the police report said, and managed to grab one officer's gun from a holster. Thompson allegedly pointed the weapon toward the officers and fired a single shot.
No one was hit, police said, and Thompson continued to squeeze the trigger several times, causing it to click repeatedly. Police didn't specify why the gun didn't fire again.
Police arrested Thompson at 8:02 p.m. Saturday. During a search, the police report said, officers found a clear plastic bag with fewer than 15 grams of cocaine.
Thompson, of the 6000 block of North Ridge Avenue, was charged with four felonies: two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count each of possession of a controlled substance and disarming a police officer. He was also hit with a misdemeanor retail theft charge.
In court Sunday, Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Thompson held in lieu of $500,000 bail. His next court appearance is Tuesday.
Omar Rivera, supervisor at JB's Deli, located across the street from Walgreens at 5501 N. Clark St., said Monday that "everyone who has been coming in has been asking" about the shooting.
"All of us are still in shock," said Rivera, who has worked for the deli for five years. "We never seen things like this here. We have heard about robberies, but we've never heard of someone getting shot right here."
Andersonville "was just announced as ... [one of the top neighborhoods] in the country, and now we have this."
No one at the deli witnessed the incident unfold, as the restaurant closes at 6 p.m. on Saturdays, Rivera said. However, he said one of his employees recognized Thompson from his mug shot.
"He has come in here," he said. "We have seen him in here and he seemed like a normal guy."
Despite the shock, Rivera said he's grateful that the "police presence can easily be seen around the neighborhood," adding that officers are "always" around which makes him feel safer. An unmarked police car was parked in the Walgreens parking lot Monday afternoon.
Nancy Cadrera, 21, was working at nearby pan-Asian and Japanese restaurant Noodle Zone, 5427 N. Clark St., Saturday evening when the incident occurred.
"My co-workers and I saw five cop cars, two ambulances and three fire trucks, so we knew something big was going on," said Cadrera, who has worked as a server at the restaurant for three years.
"Sometimes you'll see one cop car ride by, but not a bunch stopping on Clark Street," she said.
The incident was "so surprising" primarily because of its location, she said.
"This is Andersonville ... it's such a nice neighborhood," Cadrera said.
Aaron Cody, 42, called the incident "outrageous," especially since he specifically moved to Andersonville because he thought it was "more peaceful" than other neighborhoods in the city.
Still, he said it "doesn't matter where it happened because crazy people go everywhere."
That opinion was shared by Sara Hall, 33, who lives in Uptown but regularly shops at Edgewater Produce near Walgreens.
"These are the types of things that happen everyday, but people don't realize it until it happens near them," Hall said.
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