Teen who escaped juvenile detention charged in shooting outside Chicago-area high school basketball game

ZION, Ill. - A teen who escaped from a juvenile detention center in December has been charged in a shooting after a high school basketball game in Zion last January.

Zion police detectives said three people arrived in a silver vehicle at Zion-Benton Township High School to attend a basketball game on Jan. 31. They attended the game until halftime when they returned to their car but did not leave the parking lot.

As the game ended and spectators were leaving the gym, the front passenger of the silver vehicle, a 17-year-old boy, got out and started shooting, police said.

The teen appeared to be targeting specific people in a group with surveillance video showing him open fire at someone less than 10 feet away, police said.

No one was struck by the gunfire and the shooter returned to the silver car and they sped away.

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The group who was targeted in the shooting were not Zion-Benton Township High School students and refused to talk to police about what happened.

Zion detectives were eventually able to identify the shooter as a 17-year-old from Round Lake who escaped from a juvenile detention center in December 2022.

The teen was taken into custody on March 8 as he left the Gurnee Mills Cinema Theater, police said. He was in possession of a fully automatic handgun during the arrest.

The teen was returned to the juvenile detention center and was charged with several counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm.