The last few customers had just trickled out of Malliway Bros. Magic and Witchcraft on Sunday night when gunshots rang out across the street.
Luke, an employee at the Rogers Park store, said he was just getting ready to close when the shots were fired outside the Morse Red Line stop.
“We were just finishing up an event and our last two customers had just left,” he said. “While my coworker and I were chatting, we heard just a huge symphony of gunshots outside.”
Derrick Robie, 27, was standing outside the Morse station, at 1358 W. Morse Ave., about 8:30 p.m. Sunday when someone in a passing black SUV fired shots, police said.
Luke said he immediately dropped to the floor while the customers who had just left rushed back inside for cover.
“I locked the door and we just hunkered down inside until the police showed up,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve ever experienced something like this. I know this area has been hit a few times in the past, but I’ve been lucky enough to be away from it.”
When officers got there, Robie was inside the station, and paramedics were trying to save his life, but Robie was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Luke said he was concerned that a shooting would happen in a community where businesses try to make their customers feel safe.
“We do our best to make it a welcoming and safe space for others, but then we have people coming here and just shooting up the place — ruining it,” he said.
No arrests were made, police said. Area 3 detectives are investigating.
In April, a man was killed and another wounded in a shooting near the Morse station. James Smith Jr., 33, and a 41-year-old man were in the 6900 block of North Glenwood Avenue when a gunman approached and began to fire shots in their direction, police said.
Both were shot in the back and were taken by paramedics to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston — where Smith died of his injuries.