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player ready...An Illinois man was shot and killed Wednesday during an early morning robbery in Hammond.
Hammond Police Lt. Richard Hoyda said police received a call about 4:39 a.m. of a robbery at the 7-Eleven convenience store, 6031 Hohman Ave. A man walked into the store and proceeded to rob it, he said.
During the robbery, the suspect shot store clerk Roger Unton, 60, of the 1700 block of Broadway, Blue Island, Ill. The suspect then left the store on foot and is still at large, Hoyda said.
Unton liked the midnight shift at the 7-Eleven in Hammond the past four years, recalls Patti Woodworth-Unton.
“He enjoyed working by himself,” but also considered the Hohman Avenue store regulars more like friends, said Woodworth-Unton, his wife of 22 years.
“He’d get them their coffee. He knew what they drank.”
He also enjoyed providing free coffee to the police officers. “If something was going on, he’d let them know,” she said.
Survivors include his parents and a brother and sister.
Born in Evergreen Park, Unton graduated from Chicago Mendel Catholic High School in the Roseland neighborhood.
Unton also obtained an associate’s degree in accounting from South Suburban College, but decided he wasn’t going to spend hours crunching numbers at a desk.
“He was smart, but he didn’t want to do it,” Woodworth-Unton said, adding her husband preferred the responsibility of midnights at convenience stores.
Unton began his convenience store career working at his cousin’s White Hen Pantry franchise in Homer Glen, Ill. When 7-Eleven purchased the store and turned it into a corporate operation, “he worked at whatever store they sent him to,” she said.
Outside of work, Unton was active in the Sons of the American Legion – initially at Calumet Park (Ill.) Post 1156.
As that post’s membership aged and declined, Unton was instrumental in establishing Post 50 in Blue Island and in helping merge the two posts, she said.
Unton was also active in the Sons of the American Legion’s college scholarship program.
Unton, who met his future wife at a bowling alley in Blue Island, also enjoyed gardening, fishing and hunting.
“He loved getting dirty,” Woodworth-Unton recalled.
He also enjoyed helping others, she said. “He’d do anything for you.”
Unton was taken to St. Margaret Mercy Medical Center’s Northlake campus, where he was pronounced dead at 5:15 a.m., according to the Lake County Coroner’s office.
Unton’s death is the first homicide in Hammond, Hoyda said. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sgt. John Suarez at 219-852-2981.
Michelle L. Quinn and Dennis Sullivan are freelance reporters.
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