Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters that a Shooting Reported At Benito Juarez High School southwest of downtown Chicago on Friday afternoon resulted in two fatalities and two injuries.
At a press conference, he informed the media that there were no suspects in custody. Because the investigation is still in its early stages, Brown claimed he had no information regarding the victims.
Four students were shot, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford. To avoid speculation, Brown said he wouldn’t confirm that the victims of the shooting were students.
One of the two dead victims was 14 years old, while the other was 15 years old, according to a news statement from the police.
According to police, both of the injured individuals are doing well. One victim, a 15-year-old male, had his leg and shoulder shot, and the second victim, a 15-year-old girl, had her thigh grazed.
The father of a sophomore at the school, Nicasio Rogel, told CNN station WBBM that he initially mistook the sound for firecrackers. Then, “two kids” with backpacks were visible on the ground.
Read more:
- In a Shooting at Benito Juarez Community Academy, Two People Were Killed, and Two Others Were Injured
- Former Fort Worth Police Officer Aaron Dean Guilty of Manslaughter In Killing of Atatiana Jefferson!
He claimed to have heard between six and eight gunshots.
When the shooting happened, students were being sent out of the school in staggered groups, according to Brown.
According to Langford, the shootings occurred on school property but outside the school. To Stroger Hospital, they were brought.
JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, issued a statement on Twitter expressing his sympathy to the victims’ families.
I’m at Benito Juarez High School in Pilsen, where four students were just shot, for @chicagotribune. One is dead, police told us. Officers just set down evidence markers right outside the Chicago school’s building. pic.twitter.com/0IFAa8TJLj
— Jake Sheridan (@JakeSheridan_) December 16, 2022
Democratic candidate Pritzker tweeted, “Schools are the backbone of neighborhoods, and students deserve to feel safe.” “We must end these unfathomable tragedies and eradicate gun violence from our communities.”
Sen. Dick Durbin echoed them and urged Congress to take additional action.
In 2020, motor vehicle crash no longer accounted for the majority of deaths among children and adolescents aged 1 to 19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.