UPDATED: 16-Year-Old Shot at Evanston McDonald's

Update April 19: In a note to parents, ETHS said that the victim and the alleged shooter were not current students there. A witness on the scene initially identified the victim as a student there. Patch confirmed the victim's name, though his status as a student could not be confirmed until the school released the statement.

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A 16-year-old was shot inside the at Dempster Street and Dodge Avenue just after 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon. 

The victim sustained a single gun shot wound to his left midsection, police said. He was taken to the Evanston Hospital, and a hospital spokeswoman said his family declined to release details on his condition.

A woman who was working next door at the Kentucky Fried Chicken who declined to give her name said she identified the victim as an ETHS student who often hangs out at both restaurants.

The woman said the group of young men involved in the shooting regularly hang out at the McDonald's after school, but are often kicked out. She said she knew the offenders and the victim because after they get kicked out of the McDonald's, they move to the KFC where she works, which is right next door.

Modupe Ogunyemi, a witness who was in McDonald's at the time of the shooting, said she saw a group of young men enter the restaurant and nearly get in a fight with the student who was shot. One of the men in the group shouted "Get out the slammer," which she said is slang for take out your gun.

"There were two gun shots," Ogunyemi said. "We all ducked down. There were little kids in there, it was crazy."

Five people of interest in the case have been taken to the Evanston police department headquarters for questioning, and police are reviewing security tape from McDonald's. Police recovered a handgun hidden under a wooden deck near the scene.

The shooting occurred less than a week after the community group Moms: Save Our Sons intended to address the issue of shootings and other violence in Evanston.