Nervous and somber, students at Chicago high school return to campus as more details about shooting emerge

CHICAGO — As the Carl Schurz High School students passed under the school’s brown iron gates Thursday morning, community members greeted them with doughnuts and flowers outside the Northwest Side school, a day after a shooting that left four teens wounded, including two Schurz students.

Thursday couldn’t be business as usual, said Juliet De Jesus Alejandre, director of the Palenque LSNA neighborhood group that organized the show of support.

“Loving each other is normal. Violence and this pain isn’t normal, so we can’t normalize it,” De Jesus Alejandre said.

The students seemed somber and nervous as they walked by the ice cream shop where the shooting happened and past two flashing-blue police cars into the school, De Jesus Alejandre said. A line of kids jutted out from the main door as they waited to go inside.

De Jesus Alejandre said she wanted to make sure the students would not feel alone. Some of the kids might be tall or have mustaches, but they are still babies, she said.

“They just want to feel loved and supported and not judged,” De Jesus Alejandre said. “A lot of them have gone through so much in the pandemic and also living in Chicago, so they just need to be reminded that they’re loved on.”

Witnesses told police they spotted a black Mercedes with tinted windows and a green license plate moments before the shooting. Three people were inside the vehicle as it moved south on Milwaukee Avenue, then turned left on Addison Street, according to the report.

That’s when a front seat passenger “opened fire into a crowd of people,” hitting the four teens and leaving one casing in the backpack of a 15-year-old Schurz student who was shot in the back and taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, according to police.

The other 15-year-old boy, Schurz sophomore Jordan Brown, was shot in the neck and was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital, where he was in critical condition, police said.

His father, Joseph Brown, said that his son was “doing fine” Thursday afternoon. The bullet went through the left side of his neck and out the right side of his cheek, he said.

“They have him sleeping right now,” Joseph Brown said, adding that his son was breathing through a tube, and doctors had been checking for swelling. “No main arteries were hit. Nothing major damaged. Nothing damaged his spine.”

Joseph Brown said his son likes playing video games and mostly keeps to himself.

He said a Schurz teacher had alerted him to the shooting but he didn’t know many details.

“He’s a good kid, everything just went south, that’s all,” his father said.

Police said the two other shooting victims attend Aspira Antonia Pantoja High School, a Chicago Public Schools charter school, though it’s not managed by CPS.

The 17-year-old, who suffered a graze wound to the leg, was taken to Community First Medical Center in good condition while the 18-year-old, also shot in the leg and in good condition, was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, police and fire officials said.

Wednesday was the third day of the new CPS school year, and Schurz, at the corner of Milwaukee and Addison, went on lockdown when the shooting happened “just prior to the school’s dismissal bell,” according to an emailed statement from Chicago Public Schools.

The mother of a 14-year-old freshman at Schurz said she was parked near the ice cream shop, waiting to pick up her daughter, when she heard eight to 10 shots.

“Fireworks at this time, I don’t think so,” she said she thought. “Those must be shots.”

The mother, who didn’t want to give her name because of safety concerns, said she saw a black car with dark windows flee the scene.

“As soon as I saw the car go by, I got very afraid, because I wondered if someone had gone inside the school,” she said in Spanish. “I was very afraid. Quickly, I wanted to run inside.”

Her daughter then texted her to say the school was on lockdown.

“Imagine, we are just starting school and this has already started, one is already afraid,” the mother said.

Laroyae Baker, 15, said as classrooms were locked down, some kids looked out the window and texted others about the shooting.

“As soon as they give the announcement, your heart goes into shock,” he said Thursday morning. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Baker worried about his friends. They often visit the ice cream shop when class gets out, he said.

Students can’t hang out around Schurz, they need to head straight home, Baker said. He thinks the shooting was related to gangs and expects more violence.

“I’m very scared walking outside by myself now. I don’t feel safe being around here anymore,” Baker said. He feels secure once he’s inside the school, he added.

Daniel Escutia, 16, said his mom had been sitting nearby to pick him up when shots were fired. Now she wants him to transfer.

“At this point, it’s just getting worse and worse,” said Escutia, adding the school locked down last year when false rumors claimed someone on campus had a gun.

The junior said he doesn’t feel secure inside or outside Schurz.

“I’m kind of worried about my safety, about coming to school,” Escutia said on his way to Spanish class Thursday.

Jessica Chavez walked her daughter to the gate for her fourth day at Schurz.

“We hope the school has security so this doesn’t happen inside,” Chavez said in Spanish.

Schurz is one of many CPS high schools whose Local School Council has voted within the last two years to do away with school resource officers who are assigned to monitor safety. The district just last week unveiled new safety and security plans.

It felt like a normal day to Marcelino Cruz. He said students go through a metal detector and have their backpacks checked as they entered Schurz.

“I mean, it happened close to school, but it was outside,” the 17-year-old student said. “The security of the school is pretty good. They have everybody safe.”

Chicago police say they have not made any arrests nor have they released a motive as of Thursday afternoon.

“It’s still an active investigation,” said Tom Ahern, a police spokesman.

____

©2022 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.