Crime & Safety
School Shooting At Grand Prairie Elementary Prevented Right Before This Juvenile Carried It Out: Sheriff
The Will County Sheriff's Office issued a late Friday night Facebook press release to offer more details on the last day of school threat.
JOLIET, IL — A juvenile from the 2400 block of rural Plainfield Township's Helmar Lane is now undergoing medical treatment after the Will County Sheriff's Office said he was stopped from carrying out a targeted school shooting in Joliet at the Grand Prairie Elementary School along Caton Farm Road on the final day of the school year.
According to the sheriff's office, the unnamed juvenile remains under close police watch at a medical facility because he was plotting the school shooting.
At 12:50 p.m. on Friday, sheriff's deputies responded to the rural property on Helmar Lane for a suicidal juvenile. Sheriff's officials said that a relative discovered the juvenile was armed with a gun, so the relative dialed 911 while pinning the juvenile down against the ground.
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Will County Sheriff's officials said the juvenile was on his way to carry out a school shooting at Grand Prairie Elementary School near the corner of Joliet's Essington Road and Caton Farm Road, when the relative intervened, preventing the school shooting from happening.
The Will County Sheriff's office announced how they detained the juvenile boy and confiscated the Glock handgun he had, as well as his backpack that contained multiple loaded magazines, knives, an accelerant, gloves and more.
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Meanwhile, Plainfield police and Plainfield School District 202 were later notified by the sheriff's office about the incident.
"For the remainder of the day, which was the last day of school, appropriate measures were taken at all school facilities, including an increased police presence," sheriff's officials explained.
As for the boy, he remains at an undisclosed hospital undergoing evaluation by medical staff, the sheriff's office revealed. This was because the boy made both suicidal and homicidal statements to the EMS on the scene.
"There is no threat to the community, this is an ongoing investigation and no charges have yet been filed," Will County police declared.
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