Chicago shooting: ‘Our community was terrorized,’ says mayor as officials search for Fourth of July gunman – latest updates | Chicago

During a visit to a fire station in Santa Monica, vice president Kamala Harris said she still intends to travel to Chicago on Tuesday to speak at the National Education Association convention.

Harris said that she had just been telling the firefighters that she was preparing to discuss the ways in which gun violence and fears of mass shootings have compounded the already-difficult job of being a teacher in America. She noted ruefully that the remarks on gun violence were prepared even before Monday’s shooting in Highland Park.

They go to school to learn how to teach our children, to inspire their ambition, to create the future generations of leaders and our teachers are also in training to deal with an active shooter,” she said, previewing her remarks. “Our teachers are having to learn how to put a tourniquet on a kid if they have been shot.”

And so when we look at the issue of gun violence, and when we look at the dangers that it presents to communities, it ranges and it is something that we should take very seriously.”

Nicholas Toledo was among the victims killed in Monday’s shooting, his family confirmed to CBS Chicago.

“We are all feeling pretty numb. We’re all pretty broken inside,” his granddaughter told the news station, which shared two photos of Toledo in a tweet.

Authorities: gunman still at large hours after Highland Park shooting

An American tradition cut short by a “uniquely” American tragedy. Gunshots rained on spectators at a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, an affluent suburb north of Chicago.

Footage shows attendees fleeing the scene as gun shots ring out, leaving behind water coolers, lawn chairs and American flags. In the chaotic rush to safety, parents were separated from children participating in the parade. At least six people were killed and two dozen injured, authorities said.

Images from the scene showed bloodied parade-goers fleeing.

Below are accounts from witnesses who were there, including footage from Lynn Sweet, a well known columnist at the Chicago-Sun Times. In the video, a band on a float festooned with red, white and blue continues to play as panicked onlookers run past.

A park official who was helping organize the parade told ABC News that he his first thought was that fireworks had been set off in someone’s backpack. But when the pops didn’t stop, he realized it was gun fire and immediately began helping those around him evacuate.

At the time of the interview, he was safe, sheltering in place, and trying to help parents re-connect with their children.

Gina Troiani told the Associated Press that she and her son were lined up with his daycare class to walk in the parade when she first heard the gunshots, which she thought were fireworks until she heard people shout that it was a shooter.

“We just start running in the opposite direction,” she told the AP.

“It was just sort of chaos,” she added. “There were people that got separated from their families, looking for them. Others just dropped their wagons, grabbed their kids and started running.”

Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times, Alexander Sandoval, he and his family were separated in the chaos. He grabbed his 5-year-old son Alex, and fled, while his partner ran in another direction with her 6-year-old daughter Melani.

“I grabbed my son and tried to break into one of the local buildings, but I couldn’t,” Sandoval recounted to the paper. “The shooting stopped. I guess he was reloading. So I kept running and ran into an alley and put my son in a garbage dumpster so he could be safe.”

The AP also spoke to Debbie Glickman, a Highland Park resident, who was on a parade float with coworkers when she saw people running.

“People started saying: ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,”’ she told the Associated Press. “So we just ran. We just ran. It’s like mass chaos down there.”

“I’m so freaked out,” Glickman said. “It’s just so sad.”

Biden condemns ‘senseless act of violence’ in Highland Park

Just moments ago, Deputy Chief Chris Covelli of the Lake county sheriff’s office held a news conference with reporters. Here’s what we learned.

• Covelli said the search for the gunman continued and urged witnesses to turn over security footage and photos to authorities to assist the investigation. “Investigators are combing through social media to see if there’s any clues or information that they can uncover,” he said.
• He declined to give details about the that was recovered, saying only that it was a “high-powered rifle”. Spectators at the parade appeared to the target.
• Covelli said authorities believe the gunman fired from the rooftop of a local business. “All indications is he was discreet and he was very difficult to see.”
• He stressed that the gunman remained at large, warning: “Could this happen again? We don’t know what his intentions are at this point.”
• Cdr Chris O’Neill of the Highland police said that officers assigned to the parade ran in the direction of the shooting when gunfire erupted at 10.14am local time. (It is common for police or other law enforcement officials to be stationed alongside parade routes for traffic control and public safety.)

In a new statement, the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said there are “no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families and children celebrating a holiday with their community”.

To the victims and the families who lost loved ones in Monday’s shooting, Pritzker said “the state grieves with you.” But he said grief and prayers alone were not enough, vowing to act to “end this plague of gun violence”.

The shooting comes at a tense moment for the nation, still reeling from the massacres in Buffalo, New York, where a gunman killed 10 people in a racist attack on a grocery store, and in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers.

Last month, Joe Biden signed into law a bipartisan gun bill crafted in the wake of the attacks intended to keep dangerous individuals from obtaining firearms while bolstering investments in the nation’s mental health system. The legislation, while modest, was celebrated as a major breakthrough after nearly three decades of gridlock in Washington over how to address gun violence in the US.

Advocates applauded the measure, but said it was far from enough. Monday’s shooting at the Independence Day parade in Highland Park is likely to renew calls for more aggressive action to prevent mass shootings in America, which continue to occur at a shocking rate.

Meanwhile the location of the shooting – near Chicago, which has a high rate of gun violence and in Illinois, which has strict gun laws – will likely fuel conservative talking points that Chicago is “proof” that gun laws don’t work are misguided. But those claims are misguided, experts say.

Illinois shares borders states that have weak gun laws, such as Indiana and Wisconsin, and studies have found that a substantial percentage of the guns recovered at crime scenes in Chicago – a majority, according to a 2017 analysis by one estimation, were purchased in other states.

Nancy Rotering, mayor of Highland Park, said the search for the gunman was ongoing and urged residents to continue sheltering in place.

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 during this devastating time. On a day that we came together to celebrate community and freedom, we’re instead mourning the tragic loss of life and struggling with the terror that was brought upon us,” she said at a press conference.

Footage posted by on social media on Monday showed people running for safety as gunshots could be heard at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, near Chicago.

Warning: some viewers may find the following footage distressing.

Highland Park’s congressman, Brad Schneider, a Democrat, said he and his campaign team were at the start of the parade when the shooting began. All are safe.

“My condolences to the family and loved ones; my prayers for the injured and for my community; and my commitment to do everything I can to make our children, our towns, our nation safer,” he wrote on Twitter. “Enough is enough!”

Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, said the Chicago police department is providing assistance, in a statement posted to Twitter.

“Law enforcement is working hard to bring the shooter into custody,” she wrote on Twitter. “If anyone has information, we encourage them to call 911 and report what you know.”

Here’s what we know so far following a press conference with Highland Park police.

• At least six people and at least two dozen are injured, most with serious injuries, after gunfire erupted at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, an affluent suburb of Chicago.
• Police said the search for the suspect continues, and that they had put a perimeter in place around the downtown area.
• Residents are being asked to shelter in place.
• Police believe the gunman opened fire from the rooftop of a building, using a rifle. A firearm was recovered at the scene.
• Cdr Chris O’Neil of the Highland Park police department said the shooting began shortly after the parade began at 10am local time. The event was abruptly halted and celebrations in neighboring communities have been cancelled.
• O’Neil described the suspect as a white male about 18 to 20 years old, wearing a white or blue T-shift.

At least six dead, 24 injured in mass shooting at July 4th parade in Chicago suburb