HIGHLAND PARK, IL – JULY 04: First responders work the scene of a shooting at a Fourth of July parade on July 4, 2022 in Highland Park, Illinois.
Jim Vondruska | Getty Images News | Getty Images
At least six people were killed and two-dozen were hospitalized after a rooftop gunman opened fire at a Fourth of July parade in the upscale Chicago suburb of Highland Park on Monday morning, officials said. The shooting sent parade spectators scrambling for cover.
Local police said they are working with state and federal law enforcement officials to track down the suspect, described at a press conference on Monday as white male, about 18-20 years old with a small build and long, black hair.
President Joe Biden said he spoke with Illinois Gov. J.B Pritzker and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and offered federal support.
“Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day,” Biden said in a written statement.
The shooting comes just days after Congress passed the most significant gun control reform bill in decades.
“I recently signed the first major bipartisan gun reform legislation in almost thirty years into law, which includes actions that will save lives,” Biden said. “But there is much more work to do, and I’m not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence.”
The Highland Park shooting occurred less than two months after a lone gunman opened fire on 10 Black shoppers at a Buffalo, N.Y. grocery store and another killed 19 children and two teachers at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school.
Police said Monday that a rifle was recovered from the Highland Park scene and urged people to stay indoors while law enforcement searched for the gunman.
FBI officers arrive at the scene of the Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, on July 4, 2022.
Youngrae Kim | Afp | Getty Images
“Law enforcement agencies are searching for the suspect; evidence of a firearm has been recovered,” the city of Highland Park said on its website. “Numerous law enforcement officers are responding and have secured a perimeter around downtown Highland Park.”
Police urged anyone with video from the parade to share it with law enforcement.
Larry Bloom, who was in the area when shots began, told NBC Chicago that at first spectators thought the “popping” sound was part of the parade.
“You heard like a ‘pop, pop, pop,’ and I think everybody kinda thought maybe it was a display on one of the floats and then it just opened up,” Bloom said.
The shooting occurred on the Independence Day parade route. The Lake County Sheriff’s office on Twitter urged people to stay out of the area to “allow law-enforcement and first responders to do their work.”
“This morning at 10:14, our community was terrorized by an act of violence that has shaken us to our core,” Highland Park Mayor Rotering, said at a news conference. “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.”
Fourth of July events in other Chicago suburbs — Evanston, Deerfield and Skokie — were called off in the wake of the Highland Park shooting, NBC News reported.
HIGHLAND PARK, IL: First responders work the scene of a shooting at a Fourth of July parade on July 4, 2022 in Highland Park, Illinois.
Jim Vondruska | Getty Images News | Getty Images
—Reuters contributed to this report.
