Police: 5 dead, 19 hospitalized in shooting at July 4 parade

Police advised folks: “Everybody disperse, please. It is not safe to be here.”

Highland Park Police mentioned in a press release early Monday afternoon that 5 folks had been killed and 19 folks have been taken to hospitals. It was unclear if the 5 useless have been among the many 19 hospitalized.

The police mentioned authorities are nonetheless trying to find the suspect.

Video shot by a Sun-Times journalist after the gunfire rang out exhibits a band on a float persevering with to play as folks run previous, screaming. A photograph posted to social media appeared to point out swimming pools of blood close to upturned chairs in downtown Highland Park.

Gina Troiani and her son have been lined up along 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 few shooter.

“We just start running in the opposite direction,” she advised The (*19*) Press.

Her 5-year-old son was using his bike embellished with pink and blue curled ribbons. He and different kids in the group held small American flags. The metropolis mentioned on it’s web site that the festivities have been to incorporate a kids’s bike and pet parade.

Troiani mentioned she pushed her son’s bike, working by means of the neighborhood to get again to their automobile.

In a video that Troiani shot on her telephone, a few of the children are visibly startled at the loud noise and so they scramble to the aspect of the highway as a siren wails close by.

It was simply form of chaos,” she mentioned. “There were people that got separated from their families, looking for them. Others just dropped their wagons, grabbed their kids and started running.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker mentioned in a tweet that he’s “closely monitoring the situation in Highland Park” and that Illinois State Police are aiding. The ISP mentioned in an e mail that it was aiding in the response to an lively shooter reported round 10:24 a.m.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office mentioned on Twitter that it’s aiding Highland Park Police “with a shooting in the area of the Independence Day parade route.” The sheriff’s workplace directed an AP reporter to contact Highland Park Police. The Police Department mentioned nobody was instantly accessible to remark.

Debbie Glickman, a Highland Park resident, mentioned she was on a parade float with coworkers and the group was getting ready to show onto the principle route when she noticed folks working from the world.

“People started saying: ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,’” Glickman advised the (*19*) Press. “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 mentioned. “It’s just so sad.”