On the afternoon of September 16, 2025, Nerissa Lee, 46, a female assistant principal at Lincoln Middle School in Berwyn, Illinois, was shot and killed as the school day ended. Police nearby heard a volley of gunfire around 4 p.m. and saw a man firing a rifle into a vehicle where Nerissa Lee was sitting. A 76-year-old woman in the car was also fatally wounded. Responding officers took cover; none returned fire or were injured. The shooter then turned the gun on himself. Authorities described the attack as domestic-related and said there was no ongoing threat to students.
The Cook County medical examiner later ruled the deaths of Nerissa Lee, 46, and the 76-year-old woman as homicides and identified the gunman as Steven T. Lee, 54, whose death was ruled a suicide. Investigators said the man also fired toward police before killing himself. In official statements, school district leaders and Berwyn police emphasized the suddenness of the violence outside the campus and confirmed that no students were physically harmed.
Witness accounts and law-enforcement summaries placed the shooting just outside the school on 16th Street, with approximately 20 shots heard by some in the area. Officers arriving on scene saw the rifle fire into the victim's car, then witnessed the shooter's suicide. By the next day, officials reiterated the domestic-violence context and the absence of any broader risk to the community.
In the days that followed, the district closed Lincoln Middle School to instruction for a day and brought in counselors, then reopened with support services for staff and students. Former students and colleagues remembered Nerissa Lee, 46, as a dedicated educator whose presence anchored the school community. With the suspect identified as Steven T. Lee and deceased at the scene, authorities announced no arrests; the case centered on a murder-suicide with the husband as the sole suspect.
