The celebration of the national day of the United States has begun with violence. In the city of Highland Park, Illinois, on the outskirts of Chicago, the traditional July 4 parade has been the scene of a shooting that has resulted in at least six deaths and 24 injuries, according to police sources. Of the injured, at least 12 have had to be transferred to hospitals.
According to the authorities, the noise of the shots caused a stampede of the assistants for fear of being shot. Some media affirm that the number of people with gunshot wounds amounts to nine.
The author of the shooting used a rifle, was a white man between 18 and 20 years old and is still on the run, police said at a press conference.
Commander Chris O’Neil asked neighbors to seek shelter because the shooter is believed to be “armed and dangerous.” “The suspect has been described as a white male approximately 18 to 20 years old, with long black hair, a small build, and was wearing a white or blue t-shirt,” O’Neil described, asking for citizen collaboration to find him.
The circumstances of the shooting have not yet been clarified by the local police, although several witnesses have informed local media that the young man was shooting from a roof, something that the security forces are trying to determine, O’Neil explained.
Some attendees have posted videos on their social networks in which the chaos generated by the shooting can be seen. In them, the assistants run desperately to try to flee from the place.
Highland Park, a residential area located about 40 kilometers from Chicago where some 30,000 people live, is a town with a majority white, upper-middle-class and upper-class population, which always votes for Democratic candidates and among whose residents are Billy Corgan, singer of the rock group ‘Smashing Pumpins’, and, in the past, the basketball star Michael Jordan. It is not an area marked by violence, which is usually concentrated in the south of Chicago, with a majority African-American and Hispanic population.
Several authorities had attended the parade, including the Governor of Illinois, Democrat Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker, and Democratic Rep. Brad Schnider.
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