Witness viewpoint: A ‘big, thick noise,’ then escape
Abandoned chairs, snacks and tiny tricycles line parade route
Shots ‘sounded like a howitzer,’ witness says
Government leaders express sadness and condolences
Hundreds of officers search Highland Park area for gunman
Highland Park, a quiet Chicago suburb, struck by gunfire
Authorities request tips and videos amid manhunt for shooter
NorthShore University HealthSystem treating 31 patients
Resident: It ‘felt like we were dodging bullets’
Woman says she hid her family in winery backroom
Witness viewpoint: A ‘big, thick noise,’ then escape
Abandoned chairs, snacks and tiny tricycles line parade route
Shots ‘sounded like a howitzer,’ witness says
Government leaders express sadness and condolences
Hundreds of officers search Highland Park area for gunman
Highland Park, a quiet Chicago suburb, struck by gunfire
Authorities request tips and videos amid manhunt for shooter
NorthShore University HealthSystem treating 31 patients
Resident: It ‘felt like we were dodging bullets’
Woman says she hid her family in winery backroom
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — At least six people were dead, 31 were hospitalized and a gunman was at large Monday afternoon after shooting Fourth of July paradegoers from a roof in this Chicago suburb, authorities said.
Video from the scene appeared to show blood pooled on the sidewalk and police talking to people in downtown Highland Park. Others showed the chaos while loud bangs could be heard on the downtown street where chairs, toys and blankets were strewn.
Authorities at a news conference said at least six were confirmed dead. Police are searching for the gunman, and the city advised residents to shelter in place as it remains an “active incident,” the website said. An area medical system said it was treating 31 people at two hospitals.
Highland Park is an affluent Chicago suburb about 25 miles north of the city’s downtown, along the shore of Lake Michigan.
The killer was still at large Monday afternoon, and people were scared and traumatized in their Highland Park houses, some working on plans to flee if the gunman were to show up there.
Brad Schneider, 35, said he was with his wife, two children and mother-in-law watching the parade when they heard what they thought were fireworks.
Here is his account, edited for clarity and length:
We heard a boom-boom-boom and then another boom-boom-boom and saw a stampede of people starting to run. My wife picked up my son. I picked up my daughter and kept running west and south to get back to our car, which was a half mile away.
We left our stuff there.
I’ve never been in this type of situation but you could tell it was a rifle shooting — that big, thick noise.
We have a six-and-a-half year old daughter and a three-and-a-half year old son. My daughter is screaming and asking is there a fire or is there a bad guy. Trying to think about how to explain — I’m more sensitized to this but now it’s hitting us close to home. My daughter is asking questions and I don’t know what to say or what to do.
We saw a lot of our friends and family before this started happening. We’re reaching out to all these people to make sure they’re all okay.
Right now we’re in our house. We don’t live that close to downtown. I told my wife if I see anyone sketchy going down the street, go out the backyard and hop the fence. Don’t just stay in the house. If you’re in the house, you’re trapped. Having to say that is incredible. We’re in an area we view is very safe.
Portable chairs, American flags, and the bicycles of small children were among the items that lie abandoned at the scene of Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade after Monday’s mass shooting.
“It’s a ghostly scene here,” tweeted USA Today reporter Grace Hauck as photographs emerged on social media of deserted strollers, shoes and snacks lining the parade route that had, earlier in the day, been lined with crowds of excited people celebrating Independence Day.
Reporters at the scene said baby blankets and wagons had also been left behind as people ran for their lives, scooping up their children and fleeing the scene.
“When everything started happening, we thought it was the Navy saluting the flag," one witness told Hauck. “I grabbed my kid and ran. I tried to break one of the store windows to just get inside a building.”
Other photographs taken at the scene showed blood-stained sidewalks and a heavy police presence.
Law enforcement with rifles are scattered around downtown Highland Park, Illinois, where lawn chairs, wagons and bikes lie abandoned. pic.twitter.com/n2a0NrFJCO
David Baum, an OB/GYN at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, was at the Highland Park parade with his three children and a grandson, who had walked in the children’s parade about 30 minutes before the main event started.
He said the shooting appeared to come from the top of an apartment building on Second Street. The bangs “sounded like a howitzer” aimed at “sitting targets,” he said.
Baum said it appeared that people on the sidewalk were targeted, as opposed to those marching in the parade.
After the shooting stopped, Baum said, people “ran for their lives.”
There were bodies down and people screaming. Those who could help, many of them nurses and doctors, were applying pressure and tourniquets to the wounded. Paramedics, Baum said, quickly determined that others were dead.
“Those bullets eviscerated people,” Baum said, adding that there “was blood everywhere.”
Baum said the shooter appeared to be using an automatic weapon.
“I am an OB/GYN, not an ER doctor. … The injuries were horrific,” he said.
Baum said that if he had been 200 feet down the block, he probably would have been shot.
After everyone scattered, there were no bodies or injured people on the street — only on the sidewalk along the storefronts.
As local, state and federal law enforcement officers continue a manhunt for the gunman who fatally shot at least six people and wounded more than two dozen in Highland Park, elected officials are expressing their sorrow and offering assistance.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) called the mass shooting “absolutely terrifying.”
“Families from all over seek out this time-honored tradition on Fourth of July — and today, many found themselves running for their lives,” she said. “Every community deserves to be safe from senseless gun violence.”
Fellow Sen. Dick Durban (D-Ill.) said his office is closely monitoring unfolding events after the act of “senseless violence.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) said she has been in touch with Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering (D) and has offered support. Lightfoot encouraged the public to report any information they know about the shooting to authorities.
Rep. Brad Schneider (D), who represents Illinois’s 10th district that includes Highland Park, was at the parade with his campaign team when gunshots erupted.
Americans should be free to attend parades without threat of gun violence, according to Rep. Robin L. Kelly (D-Ill.).
“In Highland Park, gun violence struck and traumatized a community,” she said, sending condolences to those affected.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) offered a more somber and direct depiction of the tragedy in a statement, asking citizens to pray for the families and law enforcement officials trying to help.
“There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families with children celebrating a holiday with their community,” he said, pledging to end gun violence in Illinois. “But grief will not bring the victims back, and prayers alone will not put a stop to the terror of rampant gun violence in our country.”
Hundreds of police officers from dozens of agencies — state, federal, county and municipal — are flooding the area around Highland Park searching for a shooter who killed at least six people and injured more than two dozen at the city’s Independence Day parade Monday morning,
SWAT teams are going door to door, and the FBI is assisting at the shooting scene, Christopher Covelli, spokesman for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said at a news conference.
More than 100 police departments in the Chicago suburbs, including Highland Park’s, are part of a mutual aid coalition called the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System, which provides SWAT services to the cities.
The Highland Park Police Department, which has 56 officers, is leading the investigation and apprehension efforts, Covelli said.
The Chicago Police Department said on Twitter that its helicopter is assisting in the search for the shooter.
Highland Park, an affluent suburb about 25 miles north of downtown Chicago, was rocked Monday by gunfire, unusual for the quiet neighborhood, according to residents.
The suburb along Lake Michigan is home to just 30,000 people, including a sizable Jewish, non-Orthodox population.
“It’s a very low-crime, very affluent area,” said Larry Bloom, a 54-year-old resident. Bloom, who is Jewish, recalled a few incidents of antisemitism, but no attack like this.
The suburb’s Americana look has made it the scene of several major movies, including “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Risky Business” and “Home Alone.”
But on Monday, chairs and personal belongings were strewn along the ground, reminiscent of the aftermath of last year’s Christmas parade attack in Waukesha, Wis., in which a driver killed six people.
Authorities are telling Highland Park residents to stay inside as they search for a shooter who attacked the Fourth of July parade Monday.
More than two dozen people were injured during the attack, which police are seeking video of, said Chris O’Neill, the Highland Park Police Department’s incident commander. Police have secured a perimeter around the suburb’s small downtown, searching for a White man, about 18 to 20 years old with a small build, long black hair and a white or blue T-shirt. Local and state authorities, as well as the FBI, are involved in the investigation.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering thanked law enforcement “who ran toward danger to render aid” and other people who put themselves at risk to save others.
“This morning, at 10:14, our community was terrorized by an act of violence that has shaken us to our core,” she said.
The NorthShore University HealthSystem is treating 31 people injured in the shooting at the Independence Day parade in Highland Park, according to spokesperson Jim Anthony.
The NorthShore Highland Park Hospital is treating 26 patients, and another five have been transferred to the NorthShore Evanston Hospital, which is a Level 1 trauma center, Anthony said in a statement. The “vast majority” were wounded by gunshots, while the others were injured in the ensuing chaos, the statement said.
The hospital system mobilized 20 additional physicians, including trauma surgeons and orthopedic specialists, within 30 minutes of the shooting, according to Anthony. Social workers and crisis counselors are also available.
Chris O’Neill, a commander at the Highland Park Police Department, said at a news conference that six people were confirmed dead and police are searching for the shooter.
Larry Bloom, 54, who has lived in Highland Park for 15 years, was walking with his bike along Central Avenue before stopping near the bandstand where the parade’s announcers were.
Bloom said he had just seen the emergency vehicles that are typically at the start of the parade and then a float for the city’s dive-rescue team when he heard a “pop, pop” sound.
At first, he thought it was part of a float display.
“Then it just opened up with just … bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, just a lot of bullets,” Bloom said. “And then we all just scattered.”
Bloom said he and the people around him ran toward Port Clinton Square, a nearby shopping complex.
“It felt like we were dodging bullets,” he said. “It was very confusing.”
“In the temperature of our country right now, I’m shocked that we’ve made it this long without something like this,” he said. “I remember when I finally got clear, I just felt like ‘It finally happened. It finally happened here.’ ”
Susan Isaacson, a Highland Park resident of 35 years, said she was at the parade when gunfire rang out about 10 minutes after the 10 a.m. start. She heard about 20 rapid gunshots.
“Everyone is running toward me, so I ran and took the kids into a backroom” of the Lynfred winery, she said.