Who is the suspect of Halloween party shooting in Illinois
Half of the nearly 200 revelers at a Halloween party in Joliet, outside Chicago, ran out of the house for their lives when 10 to 12 shots were heard around 12:30 a.m. Sunday. according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office. Two people were killed and more than a dozen injured when two gunmen opened fire at a Halloween party in Illinois, authorities said.
“Witnesses indicated to detectives that there were two shooters at the party,” officers said in a statement Sunday. “The shooting occurred from an elevated position on a porch looking out into the crowd.” One of the shooters, believed to be a black or Hispanic male, was wearing a yellow hoodie and balaclava when the shots rang out. The shots outside the home erupted near a DJ booth set up in a backyard filled with nearly 200 partiers.
More than 12 people were injured and rushed to hospitals, including four with life-threatening injuries. Two others were declared dead and were not immediately identified by the authorities, but relatives told WLS-TV they were both 22 years old. One of the victims, Holly Matthews, was studying to become an arborist at Joliet Junior College and had been engaged just two weeks ago. He went to the party with two friends on Saturday night after going to another Halloween gathering in Frankfort, his mother said.
Matthews and his friends were preparing to leave when the shooters opened fire. Jonathan Ceballos, another 22-year-old partygoer, was also killed, WLS-TV reported, citing witnesses at the scene. “He was a great guy,” a friend who identified himself only as Nathan told the station. “A straight guy, excellent at sports; overall, overall, a genuinely good person.”
It is unclear what led the gunmen to shoot at the house party and detectives were still at the scene later Sunday collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses. Authorities now want the public’s help in identifying the shooters, especially if someone has photos or videos of the Halloween gathering.
“Just a girl in a costume for a Halloween party,” Matthews father Stephen told WLS-TV of his late daughter. “He lost his life for no reason, absolutely no reason.” The party was initially intended for a group of approximately 50 relatives and friends, relatives of the hosts. told the Chicago Tribune.
A man at the party, Junior Sandoval, told the newspaper that the shots were fired after people on a balcony began displaying gang signs near the DJ booth. I threw my girlfriend to the ground and fell on her,” recalls Sandoval. “When the shooting stopped, we ran away. They were trampling us and everything. ”
The party got out of hand after people started posting about it on social media, relatives of the hosts said. It was filled with random people that we didn’t know,” Valerie Alvarez told the Tribune. “” Even the host of the party said, ‘I don’t even know these people, where do they come from?’ ”.
Álvarez and his brothers said the hosts were not affiliated with any gang. Álvarez’s aunt, Elizabeth Arias, said she called police an hour before the shooting and complained about cars on the street and loud music. Police responded and “peace was restored,” according to a call log cited by the Tribune.
“They passed, they saw everything,” Arias told the newspaper. “Now we have two dead people.” Of the 200 invited to the party, investigators had only spoken to about 50 of them as of noon Sunday, Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Dan Jungles told the Tribune.
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