Benito Juarez High School Shooting: 4 Shot, 1 Dead

A shooting outside Benito Juarez High School in Chicago, Illinois, left four people wounded with one of them dead.

Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern wrote on Twitter, “BREAKING: Four individuals have been shot in the vicinity of Benito Juarez High School in the 1400 blk of W. Cermak @ChicagoCAPS12. All victims have been transported to area hospital. Conditions unknown. PIO on scene. Media staging Cermak and Laflin.”

He added: “CPS has announced an ‘All clear’ for students in the school. The shooting incident took place outside the school.”

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, all of those shot were teenagers, and the deceased victim was a male. The victims’ names have not been released. No suspect information has been released as the shooting had just occurred on the afternoon of December 16, 2022.

The full name of the school is Benito Jurez Community Academy; the school is located in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. According to the Chicago Journal, the shooting occurred as classes were letting out.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Shooting Occurred in Mid-Afternoon Outside the School

The Sun-Times reported that the shooting broke out around 2:30 p.m. in the 2100 block of South Laflin Street.

The motive is not clear.

One of the other three teens is seriously wounded and was in “traumatic arrest,” the newspaper reported.

According to journalist Vi Nguyen, writing on Twitter, the school was on lockdown but all is now clear.

The school’s website says, “The mission of Benito Juárez Community Academy, a premier neighborhood school, is to establish a dynamic family of lifelong learners who strive to think critically, progressively, and globally while engaged in the pursuit of personal and collective growth.”

Video Emerged From the Scene After the Shooting Occurred

Local news outlets recorded live video from the scene.

According to Windy City Weather and News, one victim was shot in the shoulder and one in the leg. All were 16 years old. One was female, and three were male.

Two of the victims were students at Juarez High School and two were students at a charter school, according to Windy City Weather and News.

It doesn’t appear that the mass shooting occurred inside the school. Rather, as the Chicago police spokesman noted, it occurred in the vicinity of the school.

Police had not provided additional details as the shooting had just unfolded. It’s not clear whether anyone is in custody.

Crime in Chicago has been a growing concern, but some serious crime categories are actually seeing a dip in numbers when compared to last year. You can find detailed crime statistics for the City of Chicago on the Chicago Police Department’s website. Murder, sexual assault, and aggravated battery are among the crime categories that are decreasing this year to date compared to last year. Some theft categories and robbery are seeing an increase so far in 2022 when compared to 2021. Theft numbers have exploded. Other major cities throughout the United States have also experienced crime increases in recent years.

READ NEXT: The University of Idaho Students Who Were Murdered in Moscow, Idaho