At least six people were killed and 30 injured on Monday after a gunman fired on the crowd at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
The gunman fired from a rooftop, law enforcement officials said, and they recovered a rifle from the scene. After a massive manhunt that lasted several hours, authorities said on Monday evening that a 22-year-old man who had been named a person of interest in the shooting was taken into police custody.
In response to the shooting, several nearby communities canceled their own Fourth of July events. "On a day that we came together to celebrate community and freedom, we're instead mourning the loss, the tragic loss of life, and struggling with the terror that was brought upon us," Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Highland Park resident Miles Zaremski told The New York Times he heard the gunfire, and thought "it was a backfire or maybe was a firecracker, but then all of a sudden there was a stampede of the crowd who was attending on either side of the street. So I kind of gingerly walked up, and all of a sudden I saw people bloodied." He added, "I have never seen anything like that in my life. It was chaos."
Highland Park is about 25 miles north of downtown Chicago, with a population of 30,000.
This is a breaking news story, and has been updated throughout.
-
August 23 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bailSpeed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambushSpeed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrialSpeed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside homespeed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
-
DOJ, Boulder police outline attacker's confessionspeed read Mohamed Sabry Soliman planned the attack for a year and 'wanted them all to die'
-
Assailant burns Jewish pedestrians in Boulderspeed read Eight people from the Jewish group were hospitalized after a man threw Molotov cocktails in a 'targeted act of violence'
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC paradespeed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack
