New Details Emerge In Chicago Ridge Mall Shooting

CHICAGO RIDGE, IL — A 17-year-old boy accused of shooting another youth over the weekend at Chicago Ridge Mall was ordered detained during a pre-trial hearing at the Bridgeview Courthouse.

Essa Al-Rifaei appeared Monday before Cook County Judge John Fairman on charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of weapon. He is being charged as an adult.

The prosecutor said Al-Rifaei was shopping with a friend Saturday evening at Dick’s Sporting Goods at Chicago Ridge Mall, when he ran into the other youth, also 17, who was shopping with his friend. The youths reportedly knew each other from past confrontations.

A verbal altercation ensued between the two. Al-Rifaei showed a handgun and motioned the youth and his friend to follow him, the prosecutor said.

Al-Rifaei and the other youth walked to the vestibule area, where Al-Rifaei is alleged to have fired four shots, the prosecutor said. Hearing gunshots, the other 17-year-old’s friend came over to see if he was okay.

Officials said the pair pushed Al-Rifaei to the ground, where they wrested the gun away from him. The prosecutor said they hit Al-Rifaei with the gun before he fled/

The other 17-year-old did not realize he had been shot in the torso until officers informed him he was bleeding. The youth was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he was treated and released the next day.

Al-Rifaei was found on mall property in a creek across from a fitness center, the prosecutor said. He, too, was taken to Christ Hospital with lacerations to his head, and Al-Rifaei’s attorney said he later had received six staples to close the wounds.

The prosecutor also said the handgun used in the shooting was found near where police found the bleeding youth. Mall security video also showed the altercation unfold.

Al-Rifaei’s attorney told the judge that the injured youth and his friend stabbed Al-Rifaei last year. Two weeks prior before the shooting, he said, the pair jumped him. In his mind, in his belief, all he did was go shopping and ran into the victim and witness who tried to kill him before, the attorney said.

“He ran out of the store and showed the gun to them,” the attorney said. “He fired three warning shots and they still came after him. We don’t know if the last shot was accidental.”

The attorney argued that Al-Rifaei could be placed in home confinement “while we sort out this case.”

“He’s had enough trauma, please let him sit in his house with his family,” the attorney said. “He can't sit in county based on these facts.”

When his client was taken into custody at the creek, Al-Rifaei’s attorney said police still did not know what had happened.

The assistant state’s attorney said Al-Rifaei has a pending juvenile case for aggravated assault with a firearm, and no FOID or concealed carry license.

“My concern is that in addition to the pending case, I have a young man carry a gun into a crowded public place,” Judge Fairman said. “He’s a danger to the community, the victim and himself.”

The judge ordered that Al-Rifaei be detained in Cook County Jail while his case is pending.

Al-Rifaei is due back in court Oct. 7 at the Bridgeview Courthouse.