Highland Park, Illinois: First responders work at the shooting scene of the Fourth of July Parade on July 4, 2022 in Highland Park, Illinois.
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At least six people were killed and 24 hospitalized after a rooftop gunman opened fire on a July Fourth motorcade in Chicago’s upscale Highland Park suburb Monday morning, officials said. The shooting sent onlookers flocked to the military parade for cover.
Local police said they are working with state and federal law enforcement officials to track down the suspect, who was described at a news conference on Monday as a white man, aged between 18 and 20, with a petite build and long black hair.
Police said a gun was recovered from the scene and urged people to stay indoors while law enforcement authorities searched for the gunman.
“Law enforcement agencies are searching for the suspect, and evidence of a firearm has been found,” Highland Park said on its website. “Many law enforcement officers are responding and have secured perimeters around downtown Highland Park.”
Police urged anyone with a video of the show to share it with law enforcement.
Police are deployed after the July 4th parade route shooting in the affluent suburb of Highland Park in Chicago, Illinois, on July 4, 2022 in a still image from a video.
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said Larry Bloom, who was in the area when the shooting started NBC Chicago that at first spectators thought the “pop” sound was part of the show.
“I’ve heard like, ‘pop, pop, pop,’ and I think everybody kind of thought maybe it was a show on a float and then it just opened up,” Bloom said.
The shooting took place on the way to the Independence Day parade. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office on Twitter urged people to stay out of the area “to allow law enforcement and first responders to do their work.”
“This morning at 10:14, our community has been terrorized by an act of violence that has shaken us to our core,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rottering said at a news conference. “On a day when we have come together to celebrate community and freedom, we are instead mourning…the tragic loss of life and struggling with the terror that has been brought upon us.”
Fourth of July events in other Chicago suburbs – Evanstonand Deerfield and Skokie — in the wake of the Highland Park shooting, NBC News reports.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC on whether President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting.
The shooting comes with gun violence on the minds of many Americans, following the May 24 massacre that killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Ovaldi, Texas, and the May 14 attack that killed 10 people at a grocery store in. Buffalo, New York.
–Reuters contributed to this report.
