Getaway vehicle of NY shooting suspect is found

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GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) -- The getaway car of a disgruntled vendor wanted in a fatal shooting at a suburban light fixture company was found abandoned in upstate New York, but the suspect is still on the run, authorities said Thursday.

The white SUV in which Sang Ho Kim of Queens is believed to have fled was found at 11 p.m. Wednesday at Sandy Beach Park in Putnam County, about 50 miles north of New York City, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said.

The Putnam County Sheriff's office ordered the Haldane Central School District closed Thursday as a precaution.

Authorities said the 63-year-old suspect walked into a room where the owner and employees of the Long Island light fixture import firm, Savenergy, were standing and opened fired Wednesday morning. The wounded man was identified as John Choi, the chief executive of the company. Nassau University Medical Center spokeswoman Shelley Lotenberg said he was in the intensive care unit in critical condition.

The name of the person who was killed has not been released.

The shooting led to the lockdown of schools and businesses at Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City, about 30 miles east of New York City.

Nassau County police Chief Steven Skrynecki said at a news conference that police believe Kim once served as a vendor to Savenergy.

"There was some disgruntlement between him and the company he was attacking," he said. "We have nothing to suggest that this individual is on a random, shooting rampage."

New Windsor police told The Times Herald-Record of Middletown that state and local police helicopters searched along Routes 9W and 32 in the Newburgh, New Windsor and Cornwall areas for the suspect. The search focused on a cemetery along 9W, among other locations some 55 miles north of New York City. Their search was scaled down Wednesday night.

Skrynecki said about four people were inside the building when the shooting happened. He refused to say what type of weapon was used or whether one was recovered.

A call to Savenergy wasn't returned. The company's website said it develops energy reduction technology that promises to reduce lighting, air conditioning, heating and electrical costs.

The shooting took place near a perimeter road that leads to the Roosevelt Field mall. The area isn't far from where Charles Lindberg took off on his historic trans-Atlantic flight to Paris in 1927.

When reports of the shooting surfaced, no customers or workers were allowed to leave the mall and no one was allowed to enter, but customers were able to roam around inside. Some stores, like Bloomingdale's, closed.

At nearby Nassau Community College, 18-year-old student Robert Brown said he huddled in a hallway for about two hours after police arrived on campus in search of the gunman.

"We saw Nassau County police running around the campus telling people to go inside," he said. "It was a crazy feeling. I just ran into the nearest building."

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Associated Press writers Jim Fitzgerald and Verena Dobnik, AP National Writer Martha Mendoza and AP researcher Judith Ausuebel contributed to this report.

4 men charged in Chicago shooting that injured 13

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CHICAGO (AP) -- Two suspected gunmen and two others have been charged in last week's shooting of 13 people including a 3-year-old boy in a crowded Chicago park, police said Tuesday.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the gunmen opened fire on the group in retaliation for an earlier shooting in which one of them was slightly wounded. He said there was no specific target, but that the shooters went to the park because it was rival gang territory.

"There's a super-heated group of gunmen who were victims and offenders," McCarthy said. "This individual was a victim of gun violence and then became an offender."

Police said all four suspects were charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery in Thursday's attack in Cornell Square Park on the southwest side.

Investigators said the shooters where Tabari Young, 22, and 21-year-old Bryon Champ, who each opened fire on the crowded park as people played a nighttime basketball game on a warm late-summer evening.

After a brief court appearance Tuesday, a judge ordered all four to be held without bond.

Young, who was identified as the principal gunman, used a military-style weapon, while Champ used another gun, McCarthy said.

Twenty-two-year-old Brad Jett, a suspected lookout, and 20-year-old Kewane Gatewood, who is accused of supplying a gun, were also charged, McCarthy said.

Young and Jett were charged Tuesday while Champ and Gatewood were charged Monday.

The shooting injured two teenagers and 3-year-old Deonta Howard, who is recovering from surgery after being shot near his ear.

Authorities say Young has more than a dozen previous arrests and have described Champ as a felon and a documented gang member.

Prosecutors said the men were members of the Blackstones street gang who were upset after an unreported shooting that took place earlier in the day in which Champ suffered a graze wound. The park was in an area frequented by members of the Gangster Disciples.

Champ, who was convicted in July 2012 on charges of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, was previously sentenced to Cook County Jail's boot camp.

McCarthy and Mayor Rahm Emanuel cited the charges and Champ's record to reiterate their demands for tougher gun laws in Illinois.

"We need a three-year minimum penalty for illegally carrying a gun on our streets," Emanuel said. "One of the shooters should have been behind bars rather than in Cornell Park on Thursday night."

McCarthy said the investigation continues, and more people could be charged.

Police had recorded 306 murders and 1,402 shooting incidents this year in Chicago as of Sept. 15, down 20 and 22 percent, respectively, from the same period in 2012. Police say overall violent crime is down about 15 percent, according to new figures released Monday.