Prom night in a northwest Indiana township turned violent as one teen died and two others were injured in a party shooting.
High schoolers from the Michigan City School District were throwing an after-party Saturday night at a home in Pine Township, when shots rang out, according to reports. No one has been arrested in connection with the shooting so far.
“I heard about 25-30 shots,” neighbor Adam Oszuscik told WGN-TV.
The Porter County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it was investigating the shooting. Officers raced to the home at around 11 p.m., local time that night, to find a teen boy dead, as well as an 18-year-old woman and another teen boy injured.
ABC7 Chicago identified the teen who had died as 17-year-old Javon Townsend. The La Porte County Coroner’s Office said Townsend was shot three times before dying at Franciscan Hospital in Michigan City, per the outlet.
The Independent has reached out to the coroner for comment.
Oszuscik described a chaotic scene of teenagers running from the after-party.
“I came out here and there were cars lined up on both sides of the road from that end to this end,” he said. “Every one of the cars were trying to get out of here and there were just tons of kids running all over the yard.”
Neighbors said the home was often rented to vacationers, per reports.
One bullet from the shooting had gone through the front door of neighbor Kimberly Horn, according to Fox 32 Chicago. She had been watching a TV show that depicted gunfire, initially masking the shooting outside her home.
“I turned on the living room light, and then you could see the bullet was on my carpet. What does that feel like? Well, that was kind of scary,” she told the outlet.
The school district said it was aware of the “tragic off-campus incident involving several Michigan City High School students following prom activities.”
“Our thoughts are with the students, families, and everyone impacted during this difficult time,” the school district said in a statement shared by multiple outlets.
Police said the shooting appeared to be an “isolated incident” with no ongoing threat to the community. A motive for the shooting remains unclear.
