ETHS lockdown may have been caused by shooting

Sophia Bollag, Assistant Summer Editor

A non-fatal shooting Tuesday may be the cause of a lockdown that occurred at Evanston Township High School the same day, police said.

The school went into lockdown at about 1:15 p.m. “in response to a community incident that occurred in the vicinity of the high school,” according to a statement on the school’s website.

The incident happened while Summer School classes were in session. No one was allowed to enter or leave the school building during the lockdown. Classes were dismissed at 1:45 p.m. after Evanston police informed the school it was safe to end the lockdown.

Evanston Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott said he thought the lockdown was probably triggered by a shooting shortly before 1 p.m. that day in the 2000 block of Dodge Avenue.

ETHS is located at 1600 Dodge Ave., several blocks south of the area where the shooting took place.

Police arrived on the scene to find a 21-year-old Evanston man who had been shot in the leg. He was taken to Evanston Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The incident on Dodge Avenue was the second shooting to occur in a 24-hour period. On Monday at about 7:15 p.m., a 39-year-old Evanston man was shot several times in the legs and sustained non-life threatening injuries, police said. He was taken from the scene in the 1700 block of Payne Street to Evanston Hospital for treatment, police said.

The city released a statement Tuesday saying police believe the two incidents might be related.

“Current information indicates that these shootings were not random acts of violence and were related,” city manager Wally Bobkiewicz wrote in a statement posted on the city’s website.

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Twitter: @SophiaBollag