Two hundred plus youths held an impromptu parking lot party in Willowbrook, Illinois this past weekend, ostensibly to celebrate the Juneteenth holiday. It all came to a screeching halt shortly after midnight when a vehicle rolled up and one or more persons emerged and began firing into the crowd. In the end, news reports say as many as 23 were shot, one was killed and police have zero suspects in custody.
Police apparently expected trouble. WBNS 10TV reported that cops were “close by” monitoring the party. Yet despite their relatively close proximity, they made no arrests as they responded to a 911 call minutes before the shooting began.
Here’s what it looked like immediately after cops arrived in the unincorporated location about twenty miles west of Murder City, USA.
Mass shooting in Willowbrook Illinois – at least 20 are dead pic.twitter.com/DR8VFtVqlX
— Redneck Azn (@LMFireSystems1) June 18, 2023
Obviously that hot take was wrong. Twenty aren’t dead, thankfully. The professional jernalizmists at CNN reported it thusly . . .
At least 22 people were injured and one person was killed by gunfire overnight in Illinois, in a peaceful Juneteenth celebration turned deadly, police say.
Well, it was “mostly peaceful.” At least until a carload of bad guys opened up on the festivities, likely with illegal switch-equipped GLOCKs.
An unknown number of suspects fired multiple rounds from multiple weapons into the large crowd of people gathered to celebrate Juneteenth, according to a statement from the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office.
Judging by the placement of the evidence markers in the photo above, it looks as though the firing may have been a bi-directional affair.
No suspects are in custody, police said.
The shooting took place around 12:30 a.m. in a parking lot in Willowbrook, about 21 miles west of Chicago.
A large group of people gathered for the celebration from around 6 p.m. on Saturday, and police were at the site to monitor the event, the sheriff’s office said.
The officers were called away around 12:25 a.m. to respond to a 911 call reporting a fight nearby.
It’s almost as if a gang used a burner phone to call the police away before opening fire.
“As deputies responded, they heard gunshots and immediately returned to the scene of the gathering,” the sheriff’s office said.
Witnesses said the parking lot was still filled with people when the sound of gunshots rang out and the scene turned chaotic. Some people started running.
And others appear to have shot back. Governor JB Pritzker interrupted his Father’s Day to let Illinois citizens know he was closely monitoring the situation.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) June 18, 2023
Conspicuously absent from this statement; any mention of gang or black on black violence. Illinois has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, yet they just don’t seem to work very well in the northern part of the state.
The Willowbrook attack wasn’t the only to take place at a Juneteenth celebration as shootings also happened in Asheville, North Carolina and San Diego. And so it goes.
