One person died and nearly two dozen were wounded in a mass shooting early Sunday at a Juneteenth celebration in Illinois, officials said.
Witnesses say at least 20 people were shot at the gathering in Willowbrook after the gunfire began around 12:30 a.m local time, the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office said during a news conference Sunday morning.
“The motive behind this incident is unclear,” Deputy Chief Eric Swanson told reporters. “This is still an active investigation.”
Authorities have not identified any victims, said if weapons were recovered or disclosed whether officials made any arrests. It is unclear if more than shooter was involved.
“It was supposed to be like a Juneteenth celebration; we just started hearing shooting, so we dropped down until they stopped,” a witness, Markeshia Avery, told the Chicago news station WLS-TV. “They just kept going. After that, we literally scattered away.”
More than 200 teenagers and young adults attended the celebration in a parking lot off of Route 83, according to the Chicago news station WBBM-TV. Witnesses told the outlet they heard between 20 and 30 gunshots at the scene, where a dozen ambulances later responded.
“I got kids to come back home to. I’m not used to this,” an unidentified woman told WBBM-TV, saying she feared for her life. “I wasn’t expecting it, but you just never know. Anything can happen anywhere.”
Hospitals in three different counties admitted patients wounded in the shooting. Some victims were taken to hospitals by officials, while others transported themselves, the sheriff’s office said.
The suburban Willowbrook is about 20 miles southwest of Chicago.
“We just heard gunshots; at first it was one, but then it was a whole bunch of gunshots,” witness Zaviar Sheikh told WLS-TV. “After then we started running like, ‘yo.’ I looked at my friend, and we took off, running like crazy.”
The sheriff’s office could not say whether the gathering was informal or if it was sponsored by any local businesses.
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