Employee Fatally Shot During South Loop Robbery

Police are looking for an apparent robbery suspect who shot and killed a food and liquor store employee in the South Loop.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that an employee at Wabash Food & Liquor, 234 S. Wabash Ave., arrived to work around 8 a.m. Friday and discovered his co-worker fatally shot in the head.

Onlookers gathered in the usually bustling area early Friday as police investigated the crime scene.

"It's awful, you don't expect this to happen," Shannon Stevens, a customer of the store, told NBC Chicago.

Police told the Chicago Tribune that the shooting apparently occurred during a robbery, but they did not know what time the incident occurred.

“He was a very, very nice guy,’’ Central Camera manager Mani Kavukatt said of the victim, according to the Sun-Times. The victim's name has not been released.

The store is located near Central Camera, DePaul University's downtown campus and just blocks from Grant Park. Police confirmed to NBC Chicago that the incident was the first homicide downtown this year.