Police arrest person of interest in mass killing that targeted Chicago-area Fourth of July parade – latest updates

An American tradition cut short by a “uniquely” American tragedy. Gunshots rained on spectators at a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, an affluent suburb north of Chicago.

Footage shows attendees fleeing the scene as gun shots ring out, leaving behind water coolers, lawn chairs and American flags. In the chaotic rush to safety, parents were separated from children participating in the parade. At least six people were killed and two dozen injured, authorities said.

Images from the scene showed bloodied parade-goers fleeing.

Below are accounts from witnesses who were there, including footage from Lynn Sweet, a well known columnist at the Chicago-Sun Times. In the video, a band on a float festooned with red, white and blue continues to play as panicked onlookers run past.

A park official who was helping organize the parade told ABC News that he his first thought was that fireworks had been set off in someone’s backpack. But when the pops didn’t stop, he realized it was gun fire and immediately began helping those around him evacuate.

At the time of the interview, he was safe, sheltering in place, and trying to help parents re-connect with their children.

Gina Troiani told the Associated Press that she and her son were lined up with his daycare class to walk in the parade when she first heard the gunshots, which she thought were fireworks until she heard people shout that it was a shooter.

“We just start running in the opposite direction,” she told the AP.

“It was just sort of chaos,” she added. “There were people that got separated from their families, looking for them. Others just dropped their wagons, grabbed their kids and started running.”

Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times, Alexander Sandoval, he and his family were separated in the chaos. He grabbed his 5-year-old son Alex, and fled, while his partner ran in another direction with her 6-year-old daughter Melani.

“I grabbed my son and tried to break into one of the local buildings, but I couldn’t,” Sandoval recounted to the paper. “The shooting stopped. I guess he was reloading. So I kept running and ran into an alley and put my son in a garbage dumpster so he could be safe.”

The AP also spoke to Debbie Glickman, a Highland Park resident, who was on a parade float with coworkers when she saw people running.

“People started saying: ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,”’ she told the Associated Press. “So we just ran. We just ran. It’s like mass chaos down there.”

“I’m so freaked out,” Glickman said. “It’s just so sad.”