According to authorities, two teenagers were shot and killed, and two others were hurt on Friday afternoon southwest of downtown Chicago.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said at a press conference on Friday that no suspects had been taken into custody. It’s early in the inquiry, so Brown said he knew nothing about the victims.
Chicago Fire Department Spokesperson Larry Langford had earlier reported that four kids had been shot. Brown stated that he did not wish to guess and would not verify whether or not the victims were students.
Both casualties were males, ages 14 and 15, and both had been shot in the head, according to a police press statement.
On Wednesday, August 3, 2022, in Waukegan, Illinois, Robert E. Crimo III’s parents, Robert Crimo Jr. (right) and Denise Pesina went to their son’s hearing in Lake County court. Crimo III, accused of murdering seven and injuring dozens more in a shooting at an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago, pleaded not guilty.
A week prior, prosecutors disclosed that he faces 117 felony counts concerning the attack.
The father of the suspected shooter in Highland Park has been charged with felony reckless conduct.
According to authorities, both of the injured individuals are expected to make a full recovery. A boy of the same age was shot in the leg and shoulder, while a girl of the same period was grazed in the thigh.
Nicasio Rogel, whose daughter is a sophomore there, told CNN station WBBM that he initially thought the noises he had heard were firecrackers. Next, he noticed “two youngsters” lying on the ground, each with a knapsack on their back.
He estimated that there were between six and eight shots. Brown stated that the school was stagger-releasing pupils when the shooting occurred. According to Langford, the shooting occurred not inside the school but on school property. All of them were taken to Stroger Hospital.
Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois sent a statement on Twitter expressing his condolences to the victims’ loved ones.
Pritzker, a Democrat, tweeted, “Schools are the cornerstone of neighborhoods, and students need to feel safe.” Our communities must be free of gun violence if we are to put a stop to these unfathomable tragedies. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) has called on Congress to do more in a similar vein.
In 2020, firearms surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of mortality among children and adolescents (1-19 years old), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.