Shooting outside Chicago O'Hare Airport during fight near Terminal 2 injures man
A man was injured in a shooting outside Chicago O'Hare Airport near the arrival area of Terminal 2 during a fight, police said.
According to Chicago Police, officers responded to the terminal just before 1 a.m. for reports of a fight between multiple people.
Video posted to social media showed fists flying among the group. Then, multiple shots rang out.
Police said a 25-year-old man was shot twice in his lower body. It all went down outside the baggage claim at the otherwise quiet terminal.
More cellphone video shows what looks like a man on the ground.
The victim was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge and is expected to recover.
"I heard what sounded like just rapid fire, like automatic fire," said witness James Van Schaick. "I looked out my window — I'm in the hotel right across the way — and I saw people scattering."
Van Schaick said he is a retired police officer staying at a nearby hotel.
"People just scattered in both directions, and then I heard a bunch of single shots," he said.
Anthony Riccio, a former Chicago Police first deputy superintendent who now serves as director of public safety for Monterey Security, said the shooting was targeted.
"The unsecured area is vulnerable to things like this, and that's typically where you'll see the biggest police presence," Riccio said.
Riccio said such crime is rare for a place like O'Hare — an airport that saw around 44 million passenger departures in 2024 and is on track for the same in 2025.
"Midnight at the airport, it's pretty much a ghost town, to be honest. There's very little foot traffic. There's very few incoming or outgoing flights. Typically as a result of that, police resources are lower," Riccio said. "You'll see more police during the day and in the afternoon — heavy travel times."
Terminal 2 serves JetBlue and some United and United Express flights, and is the main entry point for Air Canada and Alaska Airlines.
"I guess you think of an airport as a pretty secure area," one traveler said.
"Get me back to Canada," another said.
Video from the scene taken later shows a bullet hole in a terminal window with shattered glass on the street. At least four hours afterward, there was still a large police response on the lower level of Terminal 2. Construction crews worked to board up windows damaged by gunfire.
The arrival area reopened around 5:15 a.m.
Meanwhile, police did take one person in for questioning by Grand Central Area detectives. But no charges had been filed as of Wednesday afternoon.
