CHICAGO — Four people believed to be Chicago Public Schools students, including three age 15 or younger, were shot near a Northwest Side high school Wednesday afternoon, Chicago police said.
It happened outside an ice cream shop across the street from Carl Schurz High School in the 3600 block of North Milwaukee Avenue.
At an evening news conference, police said it was believed the four were “CPS students,” but police did not say if they attended Schurz.
The Chicago Teachers Union later tweeted that the victims were from Schurz and “a local charter school.”
Police responded to a report of shots fired at about 2:45 p.m. and victims were found in the patio area of a nearby business. The shots are believed to have come from a dark SUV that pulled up along Addison Street, Deputy Chief Roberto Nieves told reporters.
One youth was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital in serious condition, one to Community First Medical Center in good condition and one was taken in serious condition to Stroger Hospital, said Larry Merritt, spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department.
The fourth shooting victim was taken in fair condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
Schurz, at the corner of Milwaukee and Addison, went on lockdown when the shooting happened “just prior to the school’s dismissal bell,” according to an emailed statement from Chicago Public Schools.
Nieves said some Schurz students had already been let out because the school has staggered dismissal times. But he said the “majority” of students were still inside the building.
“This is very upsetting,” Nieves said. “We’re very upset ourselves and frustrated by this. Our No. 1 priority is the safety of our kids, especially our kids that attend school. They should be safe coming and while they’re at school and going home. So we’re going to work on keeping that, and we assure the parents we will be out here protecting our children.”
He said increased patrols at morning bell and dismissal times would start Thursday.
The lockdown was later lifted and students were released, the CPS statement added.
“Our thoughts are with those individuals injured in this incident,” the statement said.
Police and fire trucks partially blocked the intersection at Addison and Milwaukee just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, directing traffic around emergency vehicles. A group of police officers gathered around the La Michoacana ice cream shop across the street from the school.
Snacks were abandoned on patio tables at the shop. A soda, a water bottle, a couple bags of chips.
Wednesday was the third day of the new CPS school year. The district just last week unveiled new safety and security plans.
Schurz is one of many CPS high schools whose Local School Council has voted within the last two years to do away with school resource officers who are assigned to monitor safety.
Orlando Rodríguez, who lives about two blocks south of the school and was raised in Irving Park, said he often hears shootings in his neighborhood late at night and sees teens fighting at the park near the school.
”It’s rough here,” Rodríguez said of the violence in the neighborhood.
Rodríguez was visiting his son’s grave Wednesday afternoon when he heard about the shooting near the school. He said he and a friend had stopped by La Michoacana ice cream shop after visiting the grave site.
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(Chicago Tribune staff writer Rosemary Sobol contributed to this story.)
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