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<p>CHICAGO &#8212; A gunman opened fire Monday at a Chicago hospital, killing a police officer and two hospital employees after a domestic dispute exploded into a firefight with SWAT team members inside the medical center. The suspect was also dead, authorities said.</p><p>It was not immediately clear if the attacker took his own life or was killed by police at Mercy Hospital on the city&#8217;s South Side, police said.</p><p>&#8220;The city of Chicago lost a doctor, pharmaceutical assistant and a police officer, all going about their day, all doing what they loved,&#8221; Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, fighting back tears. &#8220;This just tears at the soul of our city. It is the face and a consequence of evil.&#8221;</p><p>A witness named James Gray told reporters that it looked as if the attacker &#8220;was turning and shooting people at random.&#8221;</p><p>The shooting apparently began as the suspect was walking with a woman near a parking lot. He turned and repeatedly shot the woman in the chest. He then entered the hospital and continued firing, Gray said.</p><p>The two had been talking to each other in what Gray said did not appear to be a heated exchange.</p><p>&#8220;Then once she fell to the ground, he stood over her and shot her three more times,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Earlier, authorities reported that four people were in critical condition, including the officer. At least one of the four was a hospital employee, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.</p><p>Television footage showed several people, including some wearing white coats, walking through a parking lot with their arms up.</p><p>Jennifer Eldridge was working in a hospital pharmacy when she heard three or four shots that seemed to come from outside. Within seconds, she barricaded the door, as called for in the building&#8217;s active shooter drills. Then there were six or seven more shots, now much closer, just outside the door.</p><p>&#8220;I could tell he was now inside the lobby. There was screaming,&#8221; she recalled.</p><p>The door jiggled, which Eldridge believed was the shooter trying to get in. Some 15 minutes later, she estimated, a SWAT team officer knocked at the door, came in and led her away. She looked down and saw blood on the floor but no bodies.</p><p>&#8220;It may have been 15 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity,&#8221; she told a reporter.</p><p>Maria Correa hid under a desk, clutching her 4-month-old son, Angel, while the violence unfolded. Correa was in the waiting area of the hospital for her mother-in-law&#8217;s doctor appointment when a hospital employee told them to lock themselves in offices.</p><p>She lost track of how many shots she heard while she waited under the desk, &#8220;trying to protect her son,&#8221; for 10 to 15 minutes.</p><p>&#8220;They were the worst minutes of our lives,&#8221; Correa, a Chicago resident, said.</p><p>Dennis Burke, who lives across the street from the hospital, was getting off the bus when he heard six gunshots and saw officers nearby with their guns drawn.</p><p>&#8220;I dropped my groceries,&#8221; Burke said. He ducked behind the bus for cover and watched as 50 to 100 people poured out of the hospital, including a victim on a stretcher.</p><p>People &#8220;were helping each other over the fence, trying to get away,&#8221; Burke said. &#8220;People were running across the street, right past me &#8212; everybody from doctors to what looked like patients, people of all ages.&#8221;</p><p>A message left for hospital officials was not immediately returned.</p><p>Mercy has a rich history as the city&#8217;s first chartered hospital. It began in 1852, when the Sisters of Mercy religious group converted a rooming house. During the Civil War, the hospital treated both Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners of war, according to its website.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_121702453-05aced7b027c4e79a4d442362376e020-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Law enforcement officials work near Mercy Hospital in Chicago on Monday in the wake of a shooting at the medical facility that wounded four people, including a police officer and a hospital employee, authorities said. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_121702453-05aced7b027c4e79a4d442362376e020-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Law enforcement officials work near Mercy Hospital in Chicago on Monday in the wake of a shooting at the medical facility that wounded four people, including a police officer and a hospital employee, authorities said. </caption0><photoCredit0>Zbigniew Bzdak | Chicago Tribune via AP </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_121702453-7d5755463f7c4e16adf12415cbc8be6e.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Employees from the hospital ride a Chicago Transit Authority bus after being evacuated from Mercy Hospital where shots were fired Monday in Chicago. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_121702453-7d5755463f7c4e16adf12415cbc8be6e.jpg</photo1><caption1>Employees from the hospital ride a Chicago Transit Authority bus after being evacuated from Mercy Hospital where shots were fired Monday in Chicago. </caption1><photoCredit1>Zbigniew Bzdak | Chicago Tribune via AP </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Gunman kills at least 3</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Amanda Seitz</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Gunman opens fire at Chicago hospital, wounds at least 4