When the car pulled up to the Toll Plaza on the outbound Chicago Skyway early Wednesday morning, Lisa Fischer whispered to the attendant that she needed help.
Seconds later, about 4:11 a.m., the 49-year-old west suburban resident jumped out of the moving vehicle just past the plaza at 88th Street and tried to run.
But Chicago Police say her boyfriend, 30-year-old Christopher M. Pena also got out of the still-moving car, pulled a gun and fired several shots, striking Fisher multiple times.
She collapsed to the pavement, and as Pena went to the car, which had crashed into the concrete meridian separating the inbound and outbound lanes of I-90, police said.
A Chicago Police officer responding to the shooting saw Pena running back toward the car, authorities said. The officer told him to stop, but Pena raised the handgun and shot himself in the head.
Fischer, of west suburban Broadview; and Pena, of the West Side Austin neighborhood, were both pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. Autopsies Thursday ruled Fischer’s death a homicide, and Pena’s death a suicide.
The eastbound lanes of the Skyway were closed for over five hours, reopening about 10 a.m., as police investigated the murder-suicide.
Police said they do not know the motive for the killings.