Cops: Fatal shooting at Elmwood Park gas station ‘self-defense’

No charges will be filed after one customer fatally shot another Saturday afternoon at a gas station in west suburban Elmwood Park.

At 4:52 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to a call of shots fired between two customers at the station in the 7400 block of West Grand Avenue, according to a spokesperson acting on behalf of Elmwood Park police.

One customer, 43-year-old Robert A. Morales, was taken to Gottlieb Hospital in Melrose Park, where he died at 5:24 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the Portage Park neighborhood on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

An autopsy on Sunday found he died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide. The shooter was not wounded.

Elmwood Park police and the West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force determined the other vehicle involved had three occupants, according to the statement. The three offered to give a video-recorded statement.

“This was an unfortunate and isolated incident,” Elmwood Park Police Chief Frank Fagiano said in the statement. “But in the end, it was determined that the individual acted in self-defense. We are happy that no innocent citizens were injured.”

“The gas station has a state-of-the-art camera system that provided us with excellent video footage allowing us to quickly get to the truth in this case,” Fagiano said.

No charges will be filed.