Just flipped on the news and apparently there was an office shooting at 500 W. Madison. Apparently there were over 100 squad cars at the building at one point. I'm seeing SWAT team members with automatic weapons walking around right now on TV. I'll post more info when it comes.

Apparently traffic is pretty messed up and CTA had to reroute buses and Metra cut all train service going to the north/northwest on the Union Pacific lines. That's pretty intense to do during rush hour in Chicago ...

EDIT: apparently four people were hurt, one is good condition, one stable, and two critical

no word on the suspect but police say the situation is "secured" even though people on the upper floors are not being allowed to leave the building at this time

[edit on 8-12-2006 by Fiverz]

To complicate things the temp is around 20 F and the wind chill is 8 F and dipping for all those people that need to find a way home.

Apparently security in the building is pretty strict ... ID cards required for access and guests need to log in and create a card just to enter the building.

Note this is the parts above the train station ... the Citybank building, not the station itself.

So I guess the trains are back up ... sounds like it was an isolated incident and the gunman was killed by police after shooting 4 others and attempting to kill himself. The building lockdown is removed and it sounds like people are moving back to normal.

They are now saying that the suspect somehow got on to the 38th floor with a gun, knife, and hammer and took a hostage. He was killed or killed himself in a firefight and now 2 of the victims are confirmed dead with 2-3 still in the hospital.

What a shame ... I would imagine someone that went nuts because of the holidays. I have to admit being in the current situation I am in that the holidays get me down a bit, but I can't imagine how someone can do that to other people. I mean killing yourself is bad enough, but to hurt others because you can't deal with your job?

I'm sure that won't come out for a couple days though anyways.