Police: Shots Fired Outside ETHS; Multiple People in Custody

Updated story, 5:50 p.m.

Multiple people are in police custody after witnesses saw someone fire a gun near Evanston Township High School Tuesday around 4 p.m., according to police. 

"At this time no one has been injured as a result of this incident and the high school is back to normal operations," Evanston Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott said in a press release. 

A caller reported hearing gunshots, and police responding to the scene saw someone running away, according to Parrott. Police chased the person on foot, then took the individual into custody and recovered a handgun believed to be used in the incident, he said.

Multiple people were taken into police custody "as a part of investigating the shots fired incident," Parrott said. "No names of the individuals in-custody are being released due to the pending investigation by detectives."

The incident happened just as parents and students began filing into the high school for the Nichols Middle School graduation. 

Original story, 4:54 p.m.

Dozens of Evanston police officers had set up crime scene tape and were walking up and down the street knocking on doors across from Evanston Township High School Tuesday afternoon, according to an eyewitness.

Patch columnist and ETHS mom Christine Wolf said a school security guard told her that somebody had been shot.  He could not tell her anything more about the incident, she said. 

Evanston police did not immediately respond to a call requesting more information about the incident.

Wolf said she saw nearly a dozen police officers standing in front of 1617 Dodge Ave., and swarms of people standing on the street. Women were coming out of the beauty salon at Church and Dodge, still wearing their capes, to see what was going on.  

Meanwhile, dozens of parents and children were heading in to the high school for Nichols School graduation, which started at 4:30 p.m. 

“All of these people are entering the high school for the graduation ceremony and half a block north, a whole other group of people are standing around, looking devastated,” Wolf said.