By MICHAEL TARM, KATHLEEN FOODY and ROGER SCHNEIDER
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) — A gunman on a rooftop opened fireplace on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago on Monday, killing at the very least six folks, wounding 24 and sending a whole bunch of marchers, mother and father with strollers and kids on bicycles fleeing in terror, police stated. The suspect remained on the free hours later as authorities scoured the realm.
Highland Park Police Commander Chris O’Neill, the incident commander on scene, urged folks to shelter in place as authorities seek for the suspect. He stated Monday afternoon {that a} “very active apprehension effort” was underway.
The July 4 taking pictures was simply the newest to shatter the rituals of American life. Schools, church buildings, grocery shops and now group parades have all change into killing grounds in latest months. This time, the bloodshed got here because the nation tried to seek out trigger to rejoice its founding and the bonds that also maintain it collectively.
Mayor Nancy Rotering stated the violence “has shaken us to our core,” including, “On a day that we came together to celebrate community and freedom, we are instead mourning the tragic loss of life and struggling with the terror that was brought upon us.”
The taking pictures occurred at a spot on the parade route the place many residents had staked out prime viewing factors early within the day for the annual celebration. Dozens of fired bullets despatched a whole bunch of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fleeing. They left a path of deserted objects that confirmed on a regular basis life all of a sudden, violently disrupted: A half-eaten bag of potato chips; a field of chocolate cookies spilled onto the grass; a baby’s Chicago Cubs cap.
“There’s no safe place,” stated Highland Park resident Barbara Harte, 73, who had stayed away from the parade fearing a mass taking pictures, however later ventured from her residence.
Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli stated at a information convention “several of the deceased victims” died on the scene and one was taken to a hospital and died there. Police haven’t launched particulars in regards to the victims or wounded.
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek stated the 5 folks killed on the parade have been adults and she or he doesn’t have data on the sixth sufferer who was taken to a hospital and died there.
Roberto Velasco, Mexico’s director for North American affairs, stated on Twitter Monday that one Mexican nationwide was killed in Highland Park and added that two different Mexicans have been wounded.
The shooter opened fireplace round 10:15 a.m., when the parade was about three-quarters via, authorities stated.
Covelli stated the gunman apparently used a “high-powered rifle” to fireside from a spot atop a business constructing the place he was “very difficult to see.” He stated the rifle was recovered on the scene. Police additionally discovered a ladder connected to the constructing.
“Very random, very intentional and a very sad day,” Covelli stated.
President Joe Biden on Monday stated he and first woman Jill Biden have been “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.” He stated he had “surged Federal law enforcement to assist in the urgent search for the shooter, who remains at large at this time.”
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been conducting an pressing hint of the rifle, company spokesperson April Langwell stated. Federal brokers conduct such traces to establish when, the place and to whom the gun was final offered.
Biden signed the widest-ranging gun violence invoice handed by Congress in many years, a compromise that confirmed directly each progress on a long-intractable subject and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.
Police consider there was just one shooter however warned that he ought to nonetheless be thought-about armed and harmful. Several close by cities canceled occasions together with parades and fireworks, a few of them noting that the Highland Park shooter was nonetheless at massive. Evanston, Deerfield, Skokie, Waukegan and Glencoe canceled occasions. The Chicago White Sox additionally introduced on Twitter {that a} deliberate post-game fireworks present is canceled because of the taking pictures.
“You have a tragic mass act of violence that was random here today at a community event where people were gathered to celebrate, and the offender has not been apprehended thus far,” Covelli, the crime process power spokesman, stated. “So, could this happen again? We don’t know what his intentions are at this point, so certainly we’re not sure of that.”
More than 100 regulation enforcement officers have been known as to the parade scene or dispatched to seek out the suspected shooter.
Hours after the taking pictures, regulation enforcement officers searched an workplace constructing close to the place the taking pictures occurred. Nearby, armed FBI brokers in camouflage had additionally escorted a household with two small women throughout Central Avenue. The kids regarded visibly frightened at the same time as their mom tried to reassure them that the brokers main and flanking them would shield them.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe now,” she instructed them. “These guys will protect you.”
Ominous indicators of a joyous occasion all of a sudden turned to horror stuffed each side of Central Avenue the place the taking pictures occurred. Dozens of child strollers — some bearing American flags, deserted kids’s bikes and a helmet bedecked with photos of Cinderella have been left behind. Blankets, garden chairs, coffees and water bottles have been knocked over as folks fled.
Highland Park is a close-knit group of about 30,000 folks situated on the shores of Lake Michigan simply north of Chicago, with mansions and sprawling lakeside estates which have lengthy drawn the wealthy and generally well-known, together with NBA legend Michael Jordan, who lived within the metropolis for years when he performed for the Chicago Bulls. John Hughes filmed elements of a number of motion pictures within the metropolis, together with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Sixteen Candles” and “Weird Science.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker stated in a press release: “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.”
Gina Troiani and her son have been lined up together with his daycare class able to stroll onto the parade route when she heard a loud sound that she believed was fireworks — till she heard folks yell a couple of shooter. In a video that Troiani shot on her telephone, a number of the children are visibly startled on the loud noise, and so they scramble to the facet of the street as a siren wails close by.
“We just start running in the opposite direction,” she instructed The Associated Press.
Her 5-year-old son was driving his bike adorned with pink and blue curled ribbons. He and different kids within the group held small American flags. The metropolis stated on its web site that the festivities have been to incorporate a kids’s bike and pet parade.
Troiani stated she pushed her son’s bike, operating via the neighborhood to get again to their automotive.
“It was just sort of chaos,” she stated. “There were people that got separated from their families, looking for them. Others just dropped their wagons, grabbed their kids and started running.”
Debbie Glickman, a Highland Park resident, stated she was on a parade float with coworkers and the group was making ready to show onto the principle route when she noticed folks operating from the realm.
“People started saying: ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,’” Glickman instructed the AP. “So we just ran. We just ran. It’s like mass chaos down there.”
She didn’t hear any noises or see anybody who gave the impression to be injured.
“I’m so freaked out,” she stated. “It’s just so sad.”
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Foody contributed from Chicago. Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo in New York and David Koenig in Dallas contributed reporting.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”