Some 500 teens crowded into Downtown Oak Park Halloween evening. Police received a call of shots fired at 7:49 p.m. No injuries were reported from the shots which were reportedly fired near Lake Street and Forest Avenue. One bullet hole was later found by police.
By shortly after 8 p.m. Oak Park police had closed Lake Street to auto traffic as officers observed multiple fights breaking out among the teens. Oak Park police, in the words of one observer, began “corralling” the young people and with the help of Chicago police officers began moving them east on Lake Street and across Austin Blvd. There was an unconfirmed report of shots being fired from within the same group on Race Avenue in Austin.
Officers from other suburban departments were called to assist. River Forest squad cars were seen with lights flashing in the parking lot of the River Forest Town Square at Harlem and Lake. A Forest Park squad was parked in the strip mall at Harlem and Circle Avenue…