Teen Fatally Shot At Lake Forest Halloween Party

LAKE FOREST, IL — One man was shot and killed at a Halloween party at a large Lake Forest house early Sunday morning. When police arrived at the scene in the 1300 block of West Estate Lane East, they found numerous people fleeing a large house party and a man fatally shot outside the home, said Sgt. Chris Covelli, spokesperson for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force.

The preliminary investigation suggests that someone pulled out a gun and started shooting during an argument. There were about 150 to 200 people at the party at the time, police said.

When the shooting began, the crowd of costumed partygoers took off running, with a 20-year-old Waukegan woman trampled in the stampede. She was treated and released from a nearby hospital, according to Covelli.

Lake Forest police were already doing extra patrols in the area and were nearby when they heard shots fired, Covelli said.

When they arrived at the site of the party, they found 19-year-old Shaft Wilson, Jr. of North Chicago lying dead outside the home.

Police said the homeowners at the site of the shooting do not live there, but the home has been occupied by one of their adult relatives over the past several months. The party had been promoted on social media and organized by an acquaintance of the adult living at the home, and most of the attendees were adults who traveled to the party from northeast Illinois and southern Wisconsin, according to Covelli.

Wilson's father was at the Lake Forest police station looking for answers Sunday, WLS reported.

"I just want to know what happened," Wilson said. "How did he die? Why did he die?"

The cause of his death was homicide due to gunfire and toxicology results are pending, according to the Lake County Coroner's office.

Wilson's family told WGN he was about to become a new father. They said the graduate of Zion-Benton Township High School had gone to the party with his brother after receiving a ticket to the even, which was billed as a "secret event."

One neighbor told the Chicago Tribune dozens of cars, many of them with Wisconsin license plates, had been parking along the block as the party filled up after from around 10:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. He said he believed he heard about 10-20 shots fired.

Some witnesses described the shooting as sounding like fireworks, according to Daily North Shore.

“We thought it was a bunch of kids having a party," one said. "Also we were thinking it was kids from outside of town. It didn’t have the feel of a Lake Forest thing.”

Others said they heard the sound of automatic weapons fire.

“It went rat-a-tat rat-a-tat rat-a-tat like the automatic weapons fire they had in [the Oct. 1 mass shooting in] Las Vegas,” another neighbor told the website.

Due to the active nature of the investigation, Covelli said he could not disclose details about any weapons that may have been found at the scene or the number of times the victim had been shot.

Covelli said the homeowners were not present at the time, but the party was hosted by a resident of the house.

There is no sign of a threat to the community, and the shooting is not believed to be random, Covelli said.

Lake Forest police have not responded to queries about the shooting.

The most recent previous homicide reported in Lake Forest dates back more than 15 years to May 2001, when Delia Kouchtirev of Lake Forest was shot and killed by her ex-husband, 40-year-old Edix A. Campos of Zion, who then turned the gun on himself, the Tribune reported.

Anyone with any information about the incident was asked to contact Lake County CrimeStoppers at 847-662-2222 or the Lake Forest Police Department at 847-810-3818.

More information will be added as it becomes available, check back for updates.

_{Location of the reported fatal shooting (Google Maps)}

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