Teen Killed, Eight Injured in Chicago Shootings After Tree Lighting

A 14-year-old boy died and eight other teenagers were wounded in separate shootings in downtown Chicago hours after the city’s official tree lighting ceremony.

The shootings occurred around 9:50 p.m. Friday,approximately four hours after the tree lighting at Daley Plaza,and a few blocks away. The first shooting was outside the Chicago Theater on State Street, with a second occurring an hour later near Federal Plaza.

“The holiday season is a time when we come together as a city. It’s when we spend time with our family and our loved ones,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “This is the opposite type of behavior that anybody wants to see. We have too many guns and too many young people who don’t value their own lives or the lives of others.”

Reports indicate a “teen takeover” occurred following the tree lighting,described as approximately 300 teens rioting in the streets. Johnson stated the chaos “set us back as a city, and it evokes fear.”

Police were seen with tape wrapped across State Street near the Chicago theater and Joffrey Ballet, following reports of gunfire outside WLS-TV studios. officers on patrol observed a large group on the sidewalk and heard gunshots, causing people to scatter.

The victims included three boys aged 14 to 17 with graze wounds, two others aged 14 and 16 with leg wounds, and a 14-year-old girl shot in the hip. A 13-year-old girl was also shot in the leg and taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital in fair condition.

Alderman Brian Hopkins initially posted on X that “300 juveniles [were] rioting in the Loop,” with at least five victims shot, one critically wounded with a life-threatening gunshot wound to the torso, and multiple police officers attacked and injured with mace.