Lake Effect News

By LORRAINE SWANSON

Editor

A store owner was shot and killed in his Uptown grocery store Saturday morning at the corner of Lawrence and Sheridan.

Family members of a store owner who was found shot to death in Uptown on Saturday morning gather on the sidewalk in front of the Anadeisy Grocery Store at 4757 N. Sheridan Road.

Lorenzeo Midguel was found in the back room of the Anadeisy Grocery Store at 4757 N. Sheridan Road. Residents who lived in the apartments above the store called police around 6:15 a.m. when they heard gunshots.

“I heard about seven gunshots at 6 a.m. and called the police and fire department,” the building’s landlord James McGinn said.

McGinn went outside to meet 23rd District police as they arrived on the scene. Firefighters broke through the front glass entry door which was locked. Midguel was found in a back room lying in an open doorway that leads to the alley. McGinn did not know if the victim was trying to escape from the store when he was shot.

Bashar Hashish, manager of the S&L Pantry next door to grocery store, said the landlord called him at 6:30 to tell him of the shooting. By the time Hashish arrived to open S&L at 7 a.m., police had roped off the whole building with crime scene tape.

“They asked me to wait 30 minutes until they had processed the scene,” Hashish said.

The victim’s family members had gathered on the sidewalk in front of the store and were being questioned by police.

“I heard them talking to the family,” Hashish told LEN. “They were asking them why [the victim] was drinking beer at 5 a.m. and playing poker. Police asked the family if [the victim] was running a poker game. I heard the police say there was money all over the floor. It was bad poker.”

The victim’s son, Noel Midguel, said his father was in his early 40s and lived on the 1200 block of West Winona.  Noel said that his father often arrived early in the morning to get things ready at the grocery store that opened for business at 8 a.m.  A friend called him early this morning to report that there was trouble at the store.

“He was a good dad. He has a lot of friends,” Noel Midguel said. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

The victim’s family members were still gathered on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store in the late morning. Younger children raced up and down the sidewalk playing tag and eating ice cream cones, as Noel hugged his weeping mother.

Officer JoAnn Taylor, of Police News Affairs, said several 911 calls were placed around 6 a.m. She said that Area 3 detectives at Belmont and Western were questioning witnesses.

“The victim was found unresponsive with several gunshot wounds,” Taylor said. “It’s still ongoing. Area 3 is just gathering information at this point.”

A building janitor was cleaning in the blood in the back of the store. Remnants of police tape roped off the alley. An older man got out of his car and asked LEN what happened as he took down the tape.

“We need to be able to get through here,” the older man said.

McGinn said that Lorenzo Midguel opened Anadeisy which sells Mexican food products about a year ago.

“He built the place from the ground up,” McGinn said.