Two injured in shooting in west-end neighborhood in unincorporated Belleville

St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department deputies investigated a shooting near Belleville Wednesday.

Two people remain hospitalized, one of them in critical condition, according to a release from Sheriff’s Department Capt. Bruce Fleshren.

Deputies were dispatched to the 7400 block of Westchester Drive in unincorporated St. Clair County at about 8:19 p.m., the release stated.

While checking the area, law enforcement was notified by staff at Belleville Memorial Hospital that a friend of an 18-year-old man had dropped him off with gunshot wounds. A short time later, the Sheriff’s Department received a call from Huntington Drive, a dead-end street a block north of Westchester, reporting a 20-year-old found in the yard with gunshot wounds.

The 18-year-old was transported to a St. Louis hospital in critical condition, while the other man remains hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release. No one else was injured.

The men involved were from East St. Louis and Cahokia Heights, Fleshren said.

A weapon was recovered at the scene, but no one has been arrested or charged as of Thursday morning, the release stated.

An investigation continues to determine the relationship between the two men and a motive for the shooting, it said.