Michigan State University basketball player Jeremy Fears Jr. was shot Saturday while visiting his hometown of Joliet, Illinois.
Yahoo Sports reported that Fears was shot in the leg and underwent surgery for a non-life-threatening injury.
The Joliet Police Department released a statement on the shooting incident. The statement said, “On December 23, 2023, at 3:44 AM, Officers responded to a residence in the 300 block of St. Jude Avenue for two people inside the home that had been shot. Upon arrival, Officers located a 19-year-old female who had sustained a gunshot wound to the pelvis and an 18-year-old male with a gunshot wound to the left thigh.”
Fears is the 18-year-old who was shot in the thigh.
The Joliet Police Department’s statement continued:
A preliminary investigation of this shooting determined that both victims were inside the residence with others at which time it is believed that a male suspect armed with a handgun entered the residence through the front door and began firing inside the residence, striking both victims. The suspect then ran from the residence. Both shooting victims were transported to Ascension St. Joseph Medical Center by the Joliet Fire Department in stable condition.
Illinois has an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, a red flag law, a 72-hour waiting period on gun purchases, and a licensing requirement for legal gun ownership. The process of obtaining a gun license, a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card, includes passing a background check conducted by the Illinois State Police.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
