Witnesses recall deadly ‘battle zone’ in Highland Park parade shooting
Terrified witnesses have described how Monday’s Fourth of July parade in a wealthy Chicago suburb turned into a deadly “battle zone” when a mass shooter started killing off innocent revelers.
Hundreds of locals fled as the gunfire — which many initially confused for Independence Day fireworks — started ringing out just after 10 a.m. in upscale Highland Park.
Six people were killed and dozens more injured when the shooter opened fire from the top of a building overlooking the parade route, police said.
“I grabbed my dad and started running,” a witness named Zoe told CNN of the moment she realized something was wrong.
“I looked back, probably 20 feet away from me, I saw a girl shot and killed. Saw her die. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Zoe said she and her dad hid behind a dumpster for about an hour before police directed them into the basement of a nearby business.
“There were people that we were hiding with … One man had been shot in the head, like his ear, he was bleeding all over his face,” she said. “There was another girl that got escorted out [who] was shot in the leg.”
Alexander Sandoval told the Chicago Sun Times that his family got separated as they frantically fled the scene — and he ended up putting his 5-year-old son into a dumpster to try and shield him from bullets.
“I grabbed my son and tried to break into one of the local buildings, but I couldn’t,” Sandoval said. “The shooting stopped. I guess [the madman] was reloading. So I kept running and ran into an alley and put my son in a garbage dumpster so he could be safe.”
Sandoval said he then set off looking for his partner and their 6-year-old daughter.
“I saw a little boy who was shot being carried away,” Sandoval said, breaking down in tears. “It was just terror.”
He eventually located the rest of his family sheltering in a nearby McDonald’s.
Gina Troiani said she was standing at the beginning of the parade route with her 5-year-old son and his daycare class when she heard a loud sound she initially thought was fireworks — until someone started yelling about a gunman.
“We just start running in the opposite direction,” she said.
“It was just sort of chaos,” Troiani added. “There were people that got separated from their families, looking for them. Others just dropped their wagons, grabbed their kids and started running.”
Debbie Glickman, a local resident, said she was on a parade float when she saw people fleeing.
“People started saying ‘There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!’ ” Glickman said. “So we just ran. We just ran. It’s like mass chaos down there.”
She added, “I’m so freaked out. … It’s just so sad.”
