Two Teens Killed, Two Hurt in Chicago School Dismissal Shooting

A school shooting at a Chicago high school has left two teenagers dead and two others injured.

Four shooting victims were rushed to Stroger Hospital after the incident outside Chicago's Benito Juarez Community Academy on Friday afternoon.

A Chicago Police Department spokesperson told Newsweek that two young male victims were shot in the head and later died of their injuries, with a 14-year-old pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital and a 15-year-old dying soon after.

Another male 15-year-old victim suffered injuries after being shot in the thigh and shoulder, while a 15-year-old female victim received "a graze wound to the thigh." Both of the survivors were initially listed in good condition.

An investigation into the shooting is ongoing, with no suspects having yet been apprehended. Police did not confirm whether the victims were students at the school.

Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown said during a press conference that the shooting occurred while students were leaving the school as it was "being dismissed in staggered phases."

"At this time, we don't have offenders identified," Brown told reporters. "So, we are obviously conducting a pretty aggressive investigation. All of our resources are being dedicated to ensure that we bring these people to justice, that caused this."

Another shooting, which Brown said was believed to be related to "a potential gang conflict" took place at almost the same time, leaving one person dead and another in critical condition. No suspects have been identified.

Brown stressed that police did not yet know whether the school shooting was "related to any of the students at Benito Juarez."

"Understand how important it is to make sure these victims survive before we start interviewing them about if they were active students, former students, etc.," he said.

Brown said that detectives were busy reviewing video surveillance footage taken at the time of the incident and would be interviewing the victims at the hospital later.

Pedro Martinez, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools and an alumnus of Benito Juarez, said at the press conference that he was "very concerned" because the shooting happened "on our grounds."

"Anything that's even close to our schools, we're always very concerned," Martinez said. "We're already working with the [Benito Juarez] staff now, we're working with the principal. We'll be providing support as needed."

A school clerk told the Chicago Sun-Times that the facility went into lockdown immediately after the shooting but was given an all-clear by police by 3:30 p.m. local time.

Anti-violence worker Guillermo Niño told the newspaper that he rushed to Benito Juarez after one of his daughters, who attended the school, called him while hiding amid the gunfire.

"Are my kids going to be scared to come to school?" said Niño. "This is supposed to be a safe haven....For them to have to be running to survive a shooting, it's not cool."

Newsweek has reached out to Benito Juarez Community Academy for comment.

Update 12/16/2022, 9:40 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.