Police tape blocks off access to a fatal shooting at a house early Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021 in Joliet, Ill. Police were seeking tips from the public in finding two suspected shooters who fled from the scene and were also seeking witnesses or anyone who may have video or photographs from the party. (Anthony Vazquez / Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A coroner on Monday identified a young man and woman who died in a shooting at a suburban Chicago Halloween party that injured more than a dozen other people.
Will County Coroner Laurie Summers said Holly Matthews and Jonathan Ceballos, both 22 and Joliet residents were fatally shot early Sunday at the party in the city about 45 miles southwest of Chicago.
Police were seeking tips from the public in finding two suspected shooters who fled from the scene and were also seeking witnesses or anyone who may have video or photographs from the party.
Summers said in a statement that autopsies performed Monday showed that Ceballos and Matthews each had sustained a single gunshot wound.
They were among more than 200 people at the party, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“She was just a young girl in a costume for a Halloween party. Lost her life for no reason. Absolutely no reason,” Holly Matthews’ father, Stephen Matthews, told WLS-TV.
The party was initially intended for a group of about 50 family members and friends, relatives of the hosts said. But social media posts promoting the party drew hundreds from surrounding communities, according to a news release from the Will County sheriff’s office.
Those attending ranged in age from their teens to mid-20s, The (Joliet) Herald-News reported.
The sheriff’s office said witnesses indicated that two people fired shots from a porch overlooking the crowd in a home’s backyard. The shots were fired from near a DJ booth that was set up.
The spray of bullets wounded 10 people, while others were hospitalized for injuries suffered when they were trampled in the rush to get away, police said.
“As soon as they started shooting, people just started running,” said Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Dan Jungles. He noted that deputies recovered several personal items such as car keys, cellphones and purses that were left behind.
