Nine people, including one who was killed, were shot during widespread disruptions in the Loop after the city’s annual Christmas tree lighting brought large crowds downtown on Friday evening, according to Chicago police. Most of the shooting victims are children too young to drive.
Most of the injuries occurred around 9:50 p.m. in a mass shooting outside the Chicago Theatre in the 100 block of North State Street. Officers were already patrolling the area when they saw a large crowd fighting on the sidewalk. As they approached, they heard gunfire and saw people running in all directions. Officers moved in and found seven wounded children who were shot along State Street from the theater toward Randolph Street.
A preliminary description broadcast by an officer described the shooter as a Black male about five feet eight inches tall wearing a tan Carhartt jacket, a white or gray sweater, black skinny pants, and white tennis shoes. He was last seen running east on Lake Street.
CPD said the victims were juveniles between 13 and 17 years old. EMS transported them from the scene to area hospitals:
- A 13-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the leg, listed in fair condition at Lurie Children’s Hospital.
- A 14-year-old boy shot in the leg, listed in good condition at Lurie.
- A 14-year-old boy with a graze wound to the stomach, listed in good condition at Lurie.
- A 14-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the right hip, listed in good condition at Lurie.
- A 15-year-old boy with a graze wound to the left thigh, listed in good condition at Stroger Hospital.
- A 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the leg, listed in good condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
- A 17-year-old boy with a graze wound to the left thigh, listed in good condition at Stroger.
Videos posted to social media showed officers treating victims on the sidewalk outside a Walgreens at State and Randolph while other officers knelt beside additional victims closer to the Chicago Theatre marquee.
The violence did not end there. At about 10:37 p.m., officers in the Loop reported hearing another round of gunfire only a few blocks south. They traced the shots to the 100 block of South Dearborn Street and found two victims at the scene.
One of the victims, a 14-year-old boy, was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. The second victim, an 18-year-old man, had a gunshot wound to the leg and was taken to Northwestern in serious condition. Police said he was unable to provide details about what happened.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) wrote on social media soon after the initial shooting that “300 juveniles” were “rioting in the Loop,” adding that multiple officers had been injured by attackers armed with mace and stun guns. He said at least one officer required hospitalization.
A source familiar with the response said officers recovered several firearms and made multiple arrests as fights and disturbances erupted across the Loop. The situation became so busy that the local police district’s lockup reached capacity, forcing officers to transport adult arrestees to a neighboring station. As of early Saturday, police had not released an official number of arrests or charges.
Including Friday’s victims, 19 people have been shot in the Loop this year. That’s an increase from 14 last year and 16 in 2023.
Like most neighborhoods, the Loop’s shootings surged during the pandemic, with 40 victims in 2022, 29 in 2021, and 18 in 2020.
Before COVID, though, the area typically had very few shootings, with only four reported during 2019.
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