Shootings rattle Joliet neighborhood

Crime scene generic image Photo credit Getty Images

By Jim Gudas

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Joliet police are investigating recent gunfire outside an elementary school and a state child welfare office, but detectives say there's nothing to suggest the incidents are related.

Police say a 16-year-old boy is charged with shooting and wounding another teen on May 15 outside Meadow View Elementary School on Mirage Avenue, which was damaged by more gunfire on Monday.

One woman, who didn't want WBBM Newsradio to use her name, lives across the street from the school. She says the neighborhood is frightened: "It's such a shocker. Never, in 21 years I've been here, we've never experienced anything like this."

Investigators say no one was hurt when windows at an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services office on Jefferson Street were damaged by gunfire last Saturday.

Joliet police say they will have an additional presence at schools until summer break in response to the recent gunfire, largely as a way to ease the concerns of students, parents and staff.