A gunman perched on a rooftop opened fire on a Fourth of July parade in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Highland Park on Monday morning, killing six innocent people and injuring dozens more in a sniper-style attack that sent hundreds fleeing in terror.
The attack left the leafy community in lockdown and the greater Chicago area on high alert as the killer gunman remained on the loose for hours.
By evening, police had identified a “person of interest” in the shooting — 22-year-old local Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III — and then nabbed him as he tried to flee the area in his 2010 silver Honda Fit.
The gunman had turned the parade route filled with families into a “battle zone’’ within seconds — picking off the innocent Independence Day revelers with a “high-powered rifle” pumping out rapid-fire shots shortly after 10 a.m., authorities and witnesses said.
“He was very military style, methodical in the way he was crouched and shooting,’’ a parade-goer told WGN-TV.
Witnesses, including some who initially confused the gunshots for holiday fireworks, told the Chicago Sun Times they counted at least 20 shots being fired.
Footage from the scene showed hundreds of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fleeing the route as the gunshots rang out just 10 minutes after the event began.
A Lake County police officer holds his head in his hands as he walks down Central Avenue in Highland Park on Monday.AP
Chairs, baby strollers, children’s bikes, blankets and US flags were left strewn in the street, and multiple bloodied bodies were quickly covered in blankets .
“I grabbed my dad and started running,” Zoe Pawelczak told CNN of the moment she realized something was wrong..
“I looked back, probably 20 feet away from me, I saw a girl shot and killed. Saw her die. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Pawelczak said she and her dad hid behind a dumpster for about an hour before police directed them into the basement of a nearby business.
“There were people that we were hiding with … One man had been shot in the head, like his ear, he was bleeding all over his face,” she said. “There was another girl that got escorted out [who] was shot in the leg.”
When she emerged from the basement, Pawelczak said the streets looked like a “battle zone.”
Blood pooled at Port Clinton Square in Highland Park, after a shooting at a July Fourth parade.
A Fourth of July parade-goer runs for cover after gunfire was heard.
People look as others run after hearing gunshots during a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois.Gina Troiani-Solorio via REUTERS
Alexander Sandoval told the Sun Times that his family got separated as they fled — and he ended up putting his 5-year-old son into a trash dumpster to try and shield him from bullets.
“I saw a little boy who was shot being carried away,” Sandoval said, breaking down in tears. “It was just terror.”
Five adults died at the scene and a sixth victim succumbed after being rushed to hospital, police said. The age of that victim wasn’t immediately known.
Of those injured, 26 people — ranging in age from 8 to 85 years — were taken to NorthShore University Health System hospitals with gunshot wounds to their abdomens and limbs. About four or five of them were children, authorities said.
At least one child was in a critical condition, police said.
Authorities believe the shooter had climbed onto the roof of a building overlooking the parade route using a ladder attached to the dwelling.
“It looks like access to the roof via a ladder in an alley was unsecure,” Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli said.
The rifle was later recovered from the roof, cops said, adding the shooter was “discreet and difficult to see” when he started firing.
“I heard 20 to 25 shots, which were in rapid succession. So it couldn’t have been just a handgun or a shotgun,” local resident Miles Zaremski said.
The Lake County Sherriff’s Office said their officers were assisting Highland Park police with a shooting in the area.WAVY-TV 10
Parade-goers were told to disband and seek safety.WAVY-TV 10
More than 100 law enforcement officers were called to the parade scene or dispatched elsewhere to track down the suspected shooter.
“He could be in the city, he could be somewhere else,” Covelli said at the time.
Mayor Nancy Rotering said at a news conference, “This morning at 10:14, our community was terrorized by an act of violence that has shaken us to our core.
“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims at this devastating time. 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.”
Sandoval recalled how he saved his son from the carnage.
“I grabbed my son and tried to break into one of the local buildings, but I couldn’t,” the dad said. “The shooting stopped. I guess [the madman] was reloading. So I kept running and ran into an alley and put my son in a garbage dumpster so he could be safe.”
Sandoval said he then set off looking for his partner and their 6-year-old daughter.
Gina Troiani said she was standing at the beginning of the parade route with her 5-year-old son and his daycare class when she heard a loud sound she initially thought was fireworks — until someone started yelling about a gunman.
“It was just sort of chaos,” Troiani added. “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 local resident, said she was on a parade float when she saw people running fleeing.
“People started saying ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, there a shooter,’” Glickman said. “So we just ran. We just ran. It’s like mass chaos down there.”
She added, “I’m so freaked out … It’s just so sad.”
Several nearby cities — including Evanston, Deerfield, Skokie, Waukegan and Glencoe — canceled their July Fourth events, citing the Highland Park shooter being still on the run.
“You have a tragic mass act of violence that was random here today at a community event where people were gathered to celebrate,” Covelli, the crime task force spokesman, said.
First responders work the scene of the shooting.
Chairs and blankets are left abandoned after hundreds of people fled the parade.Getty Images
At least six people were killed and more than 30 were hospitalized.
Bicycles sit abandoned after people fled the scene of the parade shooting.TANNEN MAURY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstoc
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker issued a statement saying, “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.
“There are no words for the kind of evil that robs our neighbors of their hopes, their dreams, their futures. There are no words I can offer to lift the pain of those they leave behind.”
He added, “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. I will stand firm with Illinoisans and Americans: we must — and we will — end this plague of gun violence.”
Illinois Rep. Bob Morgan tweeted that he was at the parade and there were “multiple injuries.”
Rep. Brad Schneider, whose district includes Highland Park, said he and his team had been gathering at the start of the parade route when the shooting unfolded.
“Hearing of loss of life and others injured. My condolences to the family and loved ones; my prayers for the injured and for my community,” Schneider tweeted. “Enough is enough!”
Chairs and blankets are left abandoned after hundreds of people fled the parade.
