At least six people are dead and 24 were taken to hospitals after a shooting at a 4th of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, and officers are searching for a suspect, local police said in a statement Monday (Tuesday in Samoa).
The authorities were still treating the case as an active shooter situation with the gunman considered to be “armed and dangerous”.
Highland Park Police Commander Chris O’Neill, on the scene, urged people to take shelter as authorities continued the search
Firearm evidence was found on the rooftop of a nearby business, O’Neill said.
The firearm was a “high-powered rifle” and the attack appeared to be “random” and “intentional,” said Christopher Covelli, spokesman for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the parade began around 10 am but it was suddenly halted 10 minutes later after shots were fired. A Sun-Times reporter saw blankets placed over three bloodied bodies. Several witnesses told the newspaper that they heard gunfire.
Hundreds of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fled the parade route, leaving behind chairs, baby strollers and blankets.
Law enforcement search in downtown Highland Park, a Chicago suburb, after a mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade, Monday, July 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)Nam Y. Huh/AP.
