JOLIET, Ill. – A sheriff says evidence suggests a man killed while trying to rob a suburban Chicago tanning salon is the same gunman in a shooting spree earlier this year along the Illinois-Indiana border.
But Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas stopped short of definitively naming Gary Amaya as the gunman, more than two months after authorities wrongly charged a police officer. Forensic test results aren't back yet.
Officials confirmed Thursday that the gun Amaya used in the tanning salon robbery was the same one used in the rural shootings, one of them fatal. Amaya's truck also matched the one used in the shootings.
A surviving witness from the earlier shootings identified Amaya as the gunman.
Amaya was shot with his own gun as he tried to rob the Orland Park salon.
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