ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — The Winnebago County Coroner has identified 63-year-old Peggy Anderson as the Pinnon Meats employee shot and killed during an armed robbery on Wednesday.
Police said Anderson was killed in the back stairway leading to an upstairs apartment around 3:30 p.m.
Police responded to the grocery store, at 2324 N. Court, for a report of an armed robbery. When officers arrived, they found Anderson lying at the bottom of the stairway.
Officers were told that the suspect, a Black male with a slender build, wearing a black mask, gray hooded sweatshirt, black pants, and black shoes, robbed Anderson as she was walking down the stairs. During the altercation, Anderson was shot in the chest, police said.
Police released photos of the suspect, in the hopes that someone can identify him.
The suspect then fled the scene in Anderson’s car, a black 2021 Toyota, which was later found, abandoned, in the 2000 block of Douglas.
Pinnon’s released a statement, saying: “We are saddened to share with you that, due to the horrific events that took place on our property yesterday, we lost one of our family members, co-workers, and a loved and trusted friend.”
Pinnon’s was closed on Thursday but said it would reopen on Friday.
Pinnon’s has been in business in Rockford under its current owners since 1982 as a small, neighborhood grocery and butcher shop that specializes in meats, operating under the Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA).
Originally opened by Ken Seal in 1951, the store began as Ken’s Market and was renamed Pinnon’s when Rick Pinnon took over the business in 1976. Another location, at 2787 Milwaukee Road in Beloit, opened in 1994.
