Security guard charged in South Loop Jewel-Osco shooting that injured 17-year-old girl
A security guard is charged with aggravated battery in the shooting outside a South Loop Jewel-Osco that injured a 17-year-old girl.
Raven Aikins, 29, is charged with one count of felony aggravated battery involving a firearm, Chicago police said.
Chicago police said around 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, Aikins was working as a security guard at the grocery store in the 1200 block of South Wabash Avenue when she got involved in an argument with the teen.
Witnesses said that during the argument the teen threw a plastic beverage container at the guard. Aikins then pulled out her gun and opened fire, police said. The teen was struck in the right thigh and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition. She is expected to recover.
CBS News Chicago learned exclusively that the teen is a homeless girl who has been missing from Minnesota since January. We are not identifying the teen because she is a minor and was a missing person.
Police sources provided her name to CBS News Chicago, and after looking into her background, we reached out to law enforcement in Minnesota. Thursday afternoon, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed the girl had been reported missing, and that the missing person alert has now been canceled.
Aikins was taken into custody about 15 minutes after the shooting in the 8000 block of South Saginaw Avenue and initially questioned as a person of interest before being officially charged. She appeared in court Friday morning and was released on electronic monitoring and told she must surrender her FOID card within 24 hours.
Jewel-Osco did not respond to repeated requests regarding whether the security guard was authorized to have a gun, about the company's use of force policy, and to comment on a security guard firing a gun at the same location in 2024.
The company's website makes no mention of allowing security officers or uniformed lot guards at Jewel stores to carry guns.