The Will County Sheriff’s Office officials said two were killed while more than 12 people have sustained injuries after a shooting at a Halloween Party at Joliet Township early Sunday morning.
The incident killed 22-year-olds Holly Matthews and Jonathan Ceballos, as identified by their families, ABC7 reported.
Matthews just got engaged and is studying at Joliet Junior College to become an arborist. She was at the Halloween Party on Saturday night, along with two of her other friends.
“She went to a party in Frankfort [and] was there until midnight,” Sharly Matthews, her mother, said. “The party ended and one of her friends, the girl she was with, said let’s go to this other party.”
The victim and her friends were at the party shortly. They intended to leave as the police said there was a shooting into the party-goers.
“I just talked to her [Saturday] morning. She was going to come over today for Halloween and she was looking forward to it. We were going to carve pumpkins and the whole nine yards,” Sharly said.
“She was just a young girl in a costume for a Halloween party. Lost her life for no reason. Absolutely no reason,” Holly’s father, Stephen Matthews, said.
On a Facebook post Sunday, the officers from the Will county Sheriff’s Office said they responded immediately to the location as a patrol sergeant heard gunshots 10 to a dozen of times before 12:40 in the morning. There were also more than a hundred people fleeing east on Jackson Street.
According to witnesses, the shooting happened in a home’s backyard in the 1000-block of East Jackson Street.
“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. 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,” “You could hear the bullets ricochet and whistle.”
Several people were then seen with gunshot wounds as more law enforcers reached the scene. Police said more shots were fired while the first team of responders was taking care of the injured ones.
More than 12 people suffered injuries and were rushed to the hospital for treatment. Meanwhile, two have died due to the injuries, according to the police.
Of the victims, four have life-threatening wounds.
Police estimated that there were 200 people at the party.
