An overnight shooting at a Halloween party in Illinois has left two people dead and at least 12 more injured.
The shooting happened on Jackson Street in Joliet Township, according to the Will County Illinois Sheriff’s Office per ABC News. At least 200 people were in attendance at the event, where a DJ booth was set up in a residential backyard.
According to the report, the shots came “from an elevated position on a porch looking down over the crowd.”
Holly Matthews and Jonathan Ceballos, both 22, were identified by family members and ABC affiliate WLS as the two people fatally shot.
“As we were dancing on the back patio, shots started going off from the porch, and we were like what? I threw my girlfriend to the side, to the floor, and she fell, and I fell with her,” one witness recounted. “And as I got back up, I seen that everybody started running, and as soon as I got the chance, I just started running too.”
“Everyone was there having fun, and all of a sudden as we’re dancing on the back patio, shots started going off from the porch,” the witness recalled. “You could hear the bullets ricochet and whistle.”
Party attendees said that two shooters were both wearing hoodies and masks. They have been described as average-size Hispanic or Black males.
One witness noted that the party host was surprised at how big the party grew, “People were showing up that we literally had no idea who they were,” said a guest named Vanessa, per CBS.
“Even the host of the party was like, ‘I don’t know these people – like where did they come from?’” said Vanessa’s sister, Valerie. Both women chose not to reveal their last names.
Joliet is about an hour outside of Chicago. It is the third-largest city in the state, with a population of more than 150,000. The middle-class city is home to two casinos, and is the birthplace of Adrianne Curry, who was the first winner of America’s Next Top Model, and rapper Da Brat.
Other states also saw shootings over the Halloween weekend. One man was killed and nine wounded in Texarkana, Texas, at a party. That shooter, Keuntae McElroy, has turned himself in.
Another shooting took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, early Saturday morning, where four people were shot.
Shootings also occurred in Columbus, Ohio, and Los Angeles, California. An ABC News report from 2019 notes that L.A. County usually sees 150 more crimes on Halloween than a normal day, a 26% increase.
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