A shooting at an Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb disrupted Monday's celebrations and further rocked a nation already awash in turmoil over high court rulings on abortion and guns as well as hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Police said at least six people are dead and 24 were taken to hospitals after the shooting in Highland Park, which disrupted the annual parade just after it began at 10 a.m.
The shooting occurred at a spot on the parade route where many residents had staked out prime viewing points early in the day for the annual celebration.
But dozens of fired bullets sent hundreds of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fleeing. They left a trail of abandoned items that showed everyday life suddenly, violently disrupted: A half-eaten bag of potato chips; a box of chocolate cookies spilled onto the grass; a child’s Chicago Cubs cap. Witnesses described seeing bloodied bodies apparently covered with blankets.
Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli said “several of the deceased victims” died at the scene and one was taken to a hospital and died there. Police have not released details about the victims or wounded.
Police said they believe there was only one shooter but warned that he should still be considered armed and dangerous. Covelli said at a news conference that the gunman apparently used a “high-powered rifle” to fire from a spot atop a building where he was “very difficult to see.” He said the rifle was recovered at the scene.
“Very random, very intentional and a very sad day,” Covelli said.
Video shot by a Chicago Sun-Times journalist after the gunfire rang out shows a band on a float continuing to play as people run past, screaming. A photo posted to social media appeared to show pools of blood near upturned chairs in downtown Highland Park.
Gina Troiani and her son were lined up with his daycare class ready to walk onto the parade route when she heard a loud sound that she believed was fireworks — until she heard people yell about a shooter.
“We just start running in the opposite direction,” she told The Associated Press.
Her 5-year-old son was riding his bike decorated with red and blue curled ribbons. He and other children in the group held small American flags. The city said on its website that the festivities were to include a children’s bike and pet parade.
Troiani said she pushed her son’s bike, running through the neighborhood to get back to their car. In a video that Troiani shot on her phone, some of the kids are visibly startled at the loud noise and scramble to the side of the road as a siren wails nearby.
"It was just sort of chaos,” she said. “There were people that got separated from their families, looking for them. Others just dropped their wagons, grabbed their kids and started running.
President Joe Biden last month signed the widest-ranging gun violence bill passed by Congress in decades, a compromise that showed at once both progress on a long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.
Biden on Monday said he and first lady Jill Biden were “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.” He said he had “surged Federal law enforcement to assist in the urgent search for the shooter, who remains at large at this time.”
Word of yet another mass shooting rose as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its independence and the bonds that still hold it together. It was supposed to be a day for taking off work, flocking to parades, devouring hot dogs and burgers at backyard barbecues and gathering under a canopy of stars and exploding fireworks.
Many cities also planned to celebrate amid easing coronavirus precautions for the first time in three years.
Baltimore, for one, is resuming its Independence Day celebrations after a two-year hiatus, to the delight of residents like Kirstan Monroe.
"I'm happy to see that downtown is getting back together, how it's supposed to be," she told WBAL-TV.
Colorful displays big and small will light up the night sky in cities from New York to Seattle to Chicago to Dallas. However others, particularly in drought-stricken and wildfire-prone regions of the West, will forgo them.
Phoenix is also again going without fireworks — not because of the pandemic or fire concerns but due to supply-chain issues.
In emotional ceremonies across the country, some will swear oaths of citizenship, qualifying them to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
During a ceremony for naturalized citizens held at Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was slated to tell 52 people originally from 42 different countries that they were essential to building a strong labor force.
"Immigrants strengthen our workforce, and, in the process, help drive the resiliency and vitality of our economy," Yellen said in prepared remarks for the Monday event.
To be sure, these are precarious times: An economic recession lurks, and the national psyche is raw from mass shootings like those seen recently at a Texas elementary school and a New York supermarket.
Sharp social and political divisions have also been laid bare by recent Supreme Court decisions overturning the constitutional right to abortion and striking down a New York law limiting who may carry a gun in public.
"Independence Day doesn't feel like much of a celebration when our basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are on the chopping block," New York Attorney General Tish James, a Democrat, tweeted. "Today, I encourage you to imagine what this nation could be if and when we live up to our values."
But for many, July 4 is also a chance to set aside political differences and to celebrate unity, reflecting on the revolution that gave rise to history's longest-living democracy.
"There's always something to divide or unite us," says Eli Merritt, a political historian at Vanderbilt University whose upcoming book traces the fraught founding of the United States in 1776.
But he sees the Jan. 6 hearings probing last year's storming of the U.S. Capitol as a reason for hope, an opportunity to rally behind democratic institutions. Even though not all Americans or their elected representatives agree with the committee's work, Merritt is heartened by the fact that it's at least somewhat bipartisan with some Republicans joining in.
"Moral courage as a locus for Americans to place hope, the willingness to stand up for what is right and true in spite of negative consequences to oneself," he said. "That is an essential glue of constitutional democracy."
Associated Press reporter Fatima Hussein contributed reporting from Washington.
