Officials: 1 dead, 4 police wounded in Illinois shooting
Feb 15, 2019, 3:52 PM
Law enforcement personnel gather near the scene where an active shooter was reported in Aurora, Ill., Friday, Feb. 15, 2019. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP)
(Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP)
AURORA, Ill. (AP) — At least one person was killed and four police officers were wounded when a shooter opened fire at an industrial park in Aurora, Illinois, officials said Friday.
Kane County Coroner Chris Nelson confirmed one person was killed. City spokesman Clayton Muhammad said four officers were wounded and in stable condition, but did not say if they were shot.
Muhammad also told ABC7 that the suspect had been “neutralized.” He did not elaborate.
The Kane County coroner was at the scene.
Live TV reports showed dozens of first responder vehicles outside a building housing the Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora, a city of about 200,000 people about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Chicago.
Several ATF teams responded to the shooting and were at the scene, according to the agency’s Chicago spokeswoman, and the FBI said it also was responding.
John Probst, an employee at the Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora, told ABC7 that he ran out of the back door as the shooting unfolded Friday afternoon. Probst says he recognized the gunman and that he works for the company.
“What I saw was the guy running down the aisle with a pistol with a laser on it,” Probst said.
He said the gunman had “a pistol with a laser.” Probst said he wasn’t hurt but that another colleague was “bleeding pretty bad.”
The company makes valves for industrial purposes.
Police said the situation had been contained and that there was “no ongoing threat to the public,” according to a statement issued by the Kane County Sheriff’s Department on behalf of the Aurora Police Department.
The statement said the Aurora Police Department was expected to hold a news conference at 5 p.m. CST.
The White House said President Donald Trump was briefed on a shooting in Illinois and monitoring the situation as he prepared to depart for a weekend trip to his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
West Aurora School District 129 said on its website that it was keeping all students in their classrooms as police investigate, but that “teaching will continue with reduced movement.”
Spokespeople for Mercy Medical Center and Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora did not immediately return messages about whether either hospital was treating victims from the shooting.
No victims had been sent to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in nearby Downers Grove as of Friday evening, spokeswoman Kate Eller told The Associated Press.
