The 13-year-old girl shot in a Fowler Avenue backyard last night remains in critical condition at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The injured teenager was not the intended target of the shooting, said Evanston Police Sergeant Kenny Carter at a Tuesday, July 26, press briefing.
“Although this does not appear to be a random act, our preliminary investigation shows that the victim was not the target of this heinous act,” Carter said. “The investigation does not indicate a continued threat to our community.”
Police have made no arrests and are asking anyone with any information to contact the detective bureau at 847-866-5040.
Police gathered media together shortly after 2 p.m. at the Evanston Fire Department headquarters for a nine-minute news conference where they took no questions and read statements. Carter delivered the statement in English and Detective Pedro Carrasco delivered the same statement in Spanish. The statements discussed preliminary findings by the two investigating agencies, EPD and the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force (NORTAF).
Carter said the victim, an Evanston resident, was attending a gathering in the backyard on Fowler Avenue when an unknown shooter fired “at least 10 rounds” over the backyard’s fence. The teenage girl was shot in the neck, and initially taken to the AMITA Health Saint Francis Hospital before being transferred to Lurie.
Evanston Police Commander Ryan Glew and public information officers first alerted the public to the shooting in a series of seven tweets between 8:19 and 10:07 p.m. Monday night. The tweets explained that officers were called to the Fowler Avenue backyard at about 6:20 p.m. where they found the girl, the only person known to have been injured during the shooting.
Superintendent Devin Horton and Assistant Superintendent Terrance Little of Evasnton/Skokie School District 65 sent a letter to families Tuesday with a list of resources and advice on processing trauma from the shooting.
While no amount of planning can help completely heal from a tragedy such as this, we are doing everything we know how to support students and families impacted by community trauma,” the letter reads. “Thank you for supporting each other and holding the victim and their family in your hearts and minds.”
I agree with Valerie. We need more thorough reporting on this issue, and, yes!, why don’t we hear more about this from the Mayor? What’s the city doing to curb gun violence? What’s the follow-up to the killing of a young father near the Arboretum? Why hasn’t there been an arrest in this most recent shooting since it appears the shooter was a neighbor? What’s the prognosis for the victim? How have the survivors of the Green Bay Road gas station shooting, about a year ago, fared?
It’s reprehensible that the Evanston Police Dept. continues to take the position that despite a killer roaming free around Evanston, “there is no threat to our community.” So, what qualifies as a “threat” if not a murderer of children roaming Evanston? Also, this is the second reported attempted murder in 3 weeks involving an Evanston girl. One poor 6-year girl was reportedly shot at as killer mercilessly gunned down her father in front of her in an Evanston park. And now a young Evanston girl has been shot mercilessly and is fighting for her life. Perhaps more frustrating is that although Mayor Bliss ran to the microphones after the Highland Park tragedy, he has yet to address Evanstonians who elected him about recent reported murders and attempted murders connected to Evanston children. We should be receiving daily briefings from the Mayor’s office until the killer or killers are caught as we don’t even know if the same killer committed both shootings and plans to shoot someone else. This sugarcoating only deepens feelings that there is a “threat” in our community. Brown and Black victims deserve the same outrage and intense hunt for the killer as everybody else. I hope the Evanston Police, many of whom are great officers, will call in the FBI and get these fatal threats against Evanston’s children under control. It also seems imperative that D65 dump that ridiculous idea about putting unarmed concierges in our schools for security. Clearly Evanstonians need armed, highly trained plain clothes professionals protecting our children at D65 schools.
Horrible, terrible news.