Clues Sought in Slaying of 7 at Illinois Restaurant

Police searched for clues Sunday at a restaurant where seven people were fatally shot, and residents expressed shock that such a crime could occur in a city that didn’t record a single murder last year.

Authorities wouldn’t say if they had any clues as to who shot the co-owners and five employees of Brown’s Chicken and Pasta fast-food restaurant. The bodies were discovered Saturday morning in two walk-in coolers.

Police combed through the restaurant’s snow-covered parking lot and searched a trash bin Sunday in search of something that might lead to the killer or killers. They also made a public appeal for anyone with any information to come forward.

“We thought our community was preserved from violence like this. But it has come to us,” Father John McNamara told worshipers at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, where one victim’s family attends.

Police questioned a man in the shootings but wouldn’t say whether he or anyone else was a suspect. They said they were also talking to current and former restaurant employees.

Relatives of one of the victims, Guadalupe Maldonado, said authorities had told them nothing about how Maldonado died.

“We’re still waiting,” his brother, Pedro, said. “It’s been a long time, and we are confused.”

Many residents said they had always felt safe in Palatine. There were no homicides in 1992, and police could recall only a few in recent years.

“Nothing of this magnitude has every happened,” 52-year resident Roger Kolze said during breakfast at the Palatine Inn, less than a block from the restaurant. “I’m sick--I don’t like to eat, I don’t like to sleep.”