A 19-year-old undergraduate student at Northwestern University was shot twice on Monday night, May 22, at Willye B. White Park in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, just a few blocks from the border with Evanston and across the street from the Howard CTA station, the university announced Tuesday morning.
In an email to the Northwestern community, Vice President for Student Affairs Susan Davis and Dean of Students Mona Dugo said the student was “seriously injured” but in “stable condition” after being taken to a local hospital for emergency treatment. In medical terminology, hospitals typically deem patients to be in stable condition when their vital signs are within normal limits.
“The Chicago Police Department (CPD) continues to investigate the crime and has stated that they believe the shooting was random, and the student was not targeted,” Davis and Dugo said in the email. “We are heartbroken and outraged that gun violence continues to have such an impact on members of our community and on the greater Chicago area.”
CPD’s major incident notifications dashboard has identified the victim as a 19-year-old female who “was standing in a park when shots were fired” around 10:15 p.m. Monday and later taken to Ascension Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston. She was shot in the chest and abdomen, according to the Chicago police, but remains in “good condition.”
No suspects are in custody at this time, though detectives have launched an investigation into the shooting, CPD said.
A cautious person is wise to avoid this area. Years ago I worked at a social services agency just around the corner from Willye B. White Park. One lovely May Friday we held a large and well – attended employment/job fair at the park’s fieldhouse. We watched in shock that afternoon as a person was shot dead right to the East of the fieldhouse. Twice gunshots were fired right outside our offices, and we had to “duck and cover” for safety’s sake…
On an early September 2018 Sunday evening, Shane Colombo, 25, was at a bus stop very near here (at Howard and Clark) when he was shot and killed in the crossfire of an exchange of gunshots between two men. He was a newly – arrived Northwestern grad student who was in the Psychology Ph.D. program. He had been shopping in that area and was returning to Evanston around 8:00 PM. The two gunmen were never found…
Respectfully,
Gregory Morrow – Evanston 4th Ward resident
I would like point some problems with this story.
First, Willye White Park is not “across the street from Howard Street CTA.” It is a full block away. Misleading readers about the geography is important, since lots of folks may think the CTA station and its vicinity are where the shooting happened. It did not happen near CTA.
Second, the park itself is a very large park. It touches three streets. Your article says she was standing “in a park.” It’s impossible from that description to say where she was, so how did you conclude the shooting was “on Howard Street?”
Third, why was this story blasted out to the NU community in the first place? The incident happened miles away from campus. Does the NU community get alerts any time a student is injured off campus?
Any shooting is a tragedy and thankfully, the student seems to be stable. I just wish the NU community was not alarmed unnecessarily and that your publication did a better job of reporting what actually happened.