Steph Deschamps / July 4, 2022
At least six people were killed and 24 injured in a shooting in the northern United States on Monday during an American Independence Day parade, authorities said.
The suspect, described by police as a white male between 18 and 20 years old, is on the run and considered armed and dangerous. Festivities have been suspended in Highland Park, the affluent city north of Chicago where the shooting took place, and in several surrounding communities.
We are assisting Highland Park Police after shots were fired on the parade route, the Lake County Sheriff's Department tweeted. Fourth of July party is cancelled, please avoid downtown Highland Park, the Highland Park City Council added on its Facebook page.
Brad Schneider, who represents the state of Illinois in the lower house of Congress, was in the affluent city, located on the shores of Lake Michigan, when the shots rang out. My campaign team and I had just met up for the start of the parade, when the shooting started, he tweeted after taking cover.
A witness, quoted by local station WGN, reported seeing a man armed with a rifle open fire in the direction of the public. He was on the ground and was crawling forward in a methodical, almost military way, commented the man, whose first name was Michael.
The crowd threw themselves to the ground before running away as pools of blood formed, he reported.
The parade was immediately suspended and festivities were cancelled in several nearby cities.
The country is more generally facing a rise in gun violence with more than 22,000 people killed so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which incorporates suicides into its data.