Transcript
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Foreign. Hey, everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield, and this is Drop Dead Serious. And if you haven't tuned into the podcast for a hot minute, something happened this week that has changed the dynamic of our studio. I know you probably know about Atlas and our Atlas Cam, my Trusty partner of 15 and a half years, who was always at my feet in the studio, so much so he needed his own came. I lost Atlas this week, and it's been a really, really hard week. And I know it's been a hard week for you, too, because I've been reading your comments, and they are so heartfelt, I can't even tell you the number of people who said that they were outside running errands and just began to cry outside of a Starbucks because of this news and this post. And they didn't know me, and they didn't know Atlas. But for whatever reason, he got through to them. And I'll tell you what, he got through to me. I've just never loved anything as much in my life as that little dog. So I am so sorry he's not going to be on the podcast anymore. I have arranged over here in the studio just a little memory of him, a little shrine. It's his dog bowl. I haven't emptied it yet. And his collar, which still smells like him. And his leash is really dirty because I use that leash for, I think, more than 10 years. And his favorite cookies, they're Little Mother Hubbard cookies. I don't. I'm not sponsoring them. They're not sponsoring me. It's just that these cookies, he loved these cookies. He freaking loved them. And so he got so many of them every day, including on the day that he died. Right before he died, I gave him about six. And the vet gave him an ice cream sundae, which was very sweet. So I'm sorry he won't be part of the podcast anymore, but I wanted you to know because I know you care. So in this episode, it was Groundhog Day, February 2, 2008, just outside of Chicago. A man claiming to be a delivery driver walked into a Lane Bryant clothing store for women, pulled out a handgun, and forced two shoppers and a store clerk and the store manager all into the back room. He bound them all with duct tape and he made them lie face down on the floor. And then when two more shoppers came into the store, he did the same thing to them. He bound them with duct tape in the back room, and he made them lie flat, face down. Somehow, the manager was able to sneak out her cell phone and place a call to 91 1. And that call has been preserved for more than 17 and a half years. Now, here's what it sounded like.
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91 1EM.
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Now, you might be thinking that somebody who would make six women lie face down bound with duct tape was going to rob the place, right? This was early in the day, too, which was weird. She don't usually have a lot of money in the store early in the day, and most people do credit card purchases anyway in these clothing stores. So it seemed weird, but maybe he was after whatever was in their purses. That's what you would think, but that is not what happened here. Within minutes of that 911 call, the gunman started shooting and he shot all six of these women execution style, by which I mean he shot each of them in the head in cold blood, one after the other. And in actuality, he really shot five directly in the head. And all of those women died. But the clerk, the clerk managed to move her head at the very last moment, and instead the bullet grazed her neck. And so miraculously, that clerk survived. And her description, as well as the suspect's voice in the background of that 911 call, those were the only real clues that investigators had to go on. And they still are. Because even though police were on the scene in almost no time, literally within minutes, that shooter got away. To this day, they are looking for an African American male between 59 and 6ft tall with a stocky build. That's it. That's all they got. But they do know this. On the day of the killings, that killer wore a black ski cap with braids sticking out. My next guest knows this story a whole lot better than he'd like to. Kevin Collins was the very first paramedic to arrive on the scene, and he gave me his first national interview since the crime happened almost two decades ago. And earlier on my NewsNation show, I talked to Kevin as well as Charlie Min, a filmmaker whose documentary called who Killed these Women? The Tinley Park 5 is set to be released in February. And the description that Kevin gave about arriving on the scene of that massacre is nothing short of chilling. You can see it in his eyes and you can hear it in his voice. He's still shattered by it 17 years later. Here's my conversation with the very first paramedic on the scene, Kevin Collinge and documentary filmmaker Charlie Minn. Kevin, if I can start with you. First of all, thank you so much for coming on the program to speak. After all of these years, I know this still can't be easy for you. Can you take me back to that day and tell me what you saw?