Oak Park police confirmed Sunday that pepper balls were deployed against a group of teenagers on Halloween evening as police from Oak Park and other municipal police forces worked to direct a group of hundreds of teens who had gathered in Downtown Oak Park east on Lake Street and toward Austin Blvd.
Chief Shatonya Johnson of Oak Park said through a spokesman that the chemical devices were not deployed by Oak Park officers. As of Sunday morning, the village spokesperson said it was not known which officer from which agency had shot the pepper balls near the teens.
Laura Schaeffer of the Compound Yellow Studio at Lake and Harvey was among those who witnessed the confrontation. She said in a Sunday interview with Wednesday Journal that a fight broke out among 8 to 12 teens in front of her gallery. “Two to 3 girls were slapping each other. It was a slap fight, the sort of thing you see sometimes with teens,” she said…