Shooter in Loop murder-suicide used unregistered gun, had domestic violence history, police say

A 45-year-old man who shot his girlfriend to death before killing himself last week at a Loop business possessed a valid Illinois concealed carry permit, but the semiautomatic handgun he used was not legally registered, police said Monday.

Richard Idrovo had an “domestic violence history” with his girlfriend, Alma B. Hernandez, in southwest suburban Tinley Park where they lived, said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department. He did not provide details.

At 2:30 p.m. Friday, Idrovo walked to the back of the AmeriCash Loans store in the 100 block of West Van Buren near the Chicago Board of Trade. He shot Hernandez twice, then walked to the front of the store and killed himself, police said.

Hernandez, a 44-year-old mother of four children, had worked at the AmeriCash Loans store and was a real-estate saleswoman at Baird & Warner’s office in LaGrange. She and Idrovo had lived with his mother in Tinley Park, according to friends and neighbors.

In December 1994, an order of protection was entered against Idrovo and was dismissed the following month, according to Cook County court records. It could not be immediately determined from court records who asked to have the order filed against him. He was divorced in 1995.

In 1997, Idrovo was arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault and violation of an order of protection, but that case was dismissed, too. He tried to have the 1994 order of protection and the 1997 arrest expunged in 2008, but his request was denied, according to court records.

Idrovo lived in southwest suburban Summit at the time of his 1997 arrest by the Chicago Police Department, records show.

Police in Tinley Park would not discuss Idrovo’s “domestic violence history” because the murder-suicide was in the Chicago Police Department’s jurisdiction.

Under state law, his arrests in the 1990s would not have barred Idrovo from owning a gun or obtaining a concealed-carry permit.