HIGHLAND PARK (Ill.) — Letham Burns wanted Highland Park’s July 4th parade to start early.
Burns, a competitive shooter and a keen observer of the sights, was just setting up lookout points for his friend, their five children, and himself.
He said, “We heard 20-30 rounds.” He said, “It was definitely semiautomatic in a rapid cadence.”
Burns shouted at the children: “Gunfire!” Go back to your car! Police said that they were approximately 150 yards away from the spot where the shooter was located, on top of a business. He was indiscriminately firing into the crowd with a high-powered rifle.
Burns stated that all of the school-based active shooter trainings paid off. They were calm and quickly left. They tried to return home but helicopters hovered overhead. The shooter was still at large.
It’s a very Jewish neighborhood. Burns stated that they hope it isn’t caused by mental illness.
Witnesses described the scene as chaotic chaos that gave way to panic and horror.
Kristen Carlson, who was with her two older children, hid in place at her mother’s house just a few blocks away from the scene, said she could see the terror on the faces of paradegoers and families. Carlson also helped other people shelter in her backyard in Highland Park’s 600 block.
She told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson that people “just ran and left all their stuff.” “I don’t live here anymore. But I’m afraid to get into my car and go home. So we are just hiding.”
Officials from the city urged residents to take refuge in their homes Monday afternoon. They called it an “active shooting incident” because the shooter, described by a white man in his late teens or early twenties with dark hair, was still at large.
Dr. David Baum was present at the parade and said that he didn’t see any bodies that would be easy to process for anyone other than a doctor.
He said, “They suffered horrific injuries. These are the kind you would see in wartime. They were the kind that can only be caused by bullets exploding bodies.” These bodies were gone. They immediately covered them and began to try to get more people out.
Baum stated that several medical professionals were present to assist victims.
Witnesses also described a confusion atmosphere at the beginning of the massacre around 10:10 a.m. Some believed the gunfire was fireworks.
Gabriella Martinez said that she thought it was part the parade. “Then, literally in one second [later], all of us started to get into panic mode.”
Larry Bloom stated that other people initially believed the gunshots were coming off of one of the floats.
He said, “I was screaming and people were screaming,” “They panicked, and they were just spreading, and I, you understand, we didn’t know. It was right in front of us, you know.”
Adrienne Drell, a Highland Park resident, didn’t hear gunshots but became confused when she saw the Highland Park High School band break up and run.
“I thought that was a great way to disperse. They ran, and I thought, Huh?’,” Drell, a retired journalist, said to NBC News.
“And a man came up to me and said, You got to get outside of here!’ Then, a cop with big dogs comes up and says: ‘Get out!’ “Get out of here!”
Amairani Garcia said that she ran with her daughter to a McDonald’s near Chicago and hid until a cousin could take them to a safe place to shelter.
Garcia stated, “You don’t expect it.” “We don’t feel safe these days,” Garcia said.
Eduardo Gonzalez, another Highland Park resident, stated that he would have attended the parade if his wife had not been working.
He dropped her at her work and drove home. He heard the screams of others outside his house and saw hundreds of people running past his house. He claimed that a woman ran by and screamed at him: “There’s an attacker!”
Gonzalez, originally from Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood, moved to Highland Park one year ago.
Gonzalez stated that he heard the occasional gunshot at least three times per year during his time in Chicago. Gonzalez gestured at the sea of military and emergency vehicles that ran parallel to his house.
