Two people were killed and another was injured in a shooting near an Illinois county courthouse on Thursday, multiple sources confirmed.
Mayor Christopher Curtis of Kankakee, Illinois, a town of 26,000 people 60 miles south of Chicago, confirmed the shooting with the Associated Press and said the two suspects had been taken into custody. Curtis did not provide any additional details on the incident.
Assistant Mayor David Guzman said the area had been cleared, and there is no other danger to the public.
Local police recovered “multiple” firearms, including one long gun, at the scene, according to Kankakee Police Chief Robin Passwater, the AP reported.
2 dead, others injured after active shooting situation outside Kankakee County Courthouse. Scene now considered secure @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/9lIPBXnA4p
— Dana Rebik (@DanaRebikWGN) August 26, 2021
“There has been a shooting at the Kankakee County Courthouse,” the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post reported by NBC News.
“The scene is secured. More information will be available as it becomes available. We are asking everyone to avoid the area as the investigation continues,” the post said, according to NBC News.
The shooting occurred at about 9:45 a.m. near the courthouse and county jail, Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey told WGN-TV. (RELATED: Judicial Watch To Depose Lightfoot Staff Member Over Allegedly Racist Interview Policy)
The Kankakee School District briefly locked down all schools in the area.
Both Curtis and the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation when asked for comments.
Gun violence in Chicago has spiked in recent years as the city saw 317 homicides committed between Jan 2021 and June 2021, according to a report by the Daily Caller News Foundation. There were 295 murders in that same time span last year.
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