Police said an “active gunman” opened fire during the July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
Details are scant, but parade attendees reported on social media that crowds of people started running when gunfire was heard minutes after the parade began.
One witness, Shawn Cotreau, said he saw the shooter on the roof of a business along the parade route, which appeared to be a gray-brown uniform hat and costume.
“He pointed [the gun] towards the center of the street,” he told CBS Chicago. “I felt like gunfire went off for a few minutes.”
Elyssa Kaufman, a producer for CBS Chicago, reported that she and her family panicked and fled to a garage.
“People were running, hiding and screaming,” she said.
Illinois State Police said they responded to an “active shooting situation” at the parade. The Lake County sheriff’s office said in a tweet that it was assisting Highland Park police in “a shooting in the area of the Independence Day parade route.”
Highland Park is an affluent community on the North Shore about 25 miles from downtown Chicago.
This is a developing story and will be updated…
