A video on social media shows parade participants suddenly fleeing in panic as gunfire eruptedMultiple people are believed to have been shot as gunfire erupted near a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb. A gunman began firing from the roof of a retail store into parade below just minutes after the celebrations began, as per local reports.A video on social media shows parade participants suddenly fleeing in panic as shots were fired in the streets of Highland Park, an affluent suburban city. Families are seen sitting on a sidewalk watching the parade. In the next frame, they are seen leaping up from the ground and running, a voice yelling “gunshots” can be heard in the background.The moment the crowd realized there had been mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, at their fourth of July parade. Unfortunately there’s nothing more American than this tragedy. pic.twitter.com/beXt9uYP3F— Read Wobblies and Zapatistas (@JoshuaPotash) July 4, 2022The shooting happened “in the area of the Independence Day parade route,” the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, which is responsible for the area that includes Highland Park.We are assisting Highland Park Police with a shooting in the area of the Independence Day parade route. STAY OUT OF THE AREA – allow law-enforcement and first responders to do their work. pic.twitter.com/PTut6CGZAe— Lake County Sheriff (@LakeCoILSheriff) July 4, 2022It is currently unclear how many victims there are or if there are any fatalities. Local media outlets, however, reported there were as many as nine victims.The city of Highland Park announced that all July 4 festivities had been canceled as a result. “Highland Park Police are responding to an incident in downtown Highland Park. All 4th of July events have been canceled. Please avoid downtown Highland Park. Take shelter if in downtown HP. More information will be shared as it becomes available,” its post on Facebook read.Illinois State Police were on the scene. They called the incident an “active shooting situation”.Firearms cause approximately 40,000 deaths a year in the United States, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.The debate over gun control — a deeply divisive issue in the country — was reignited by two massacres in May that saw 10 Black supermarket shoppers gunned down in upstate New York and 21 people, mostly young children, killed at an elementary school in Texas.Congress passed the first significant bill on gun safety in decades in the wake of those killings. President Joe Biden signed it into law in late June, saying that while it falls short of what is really needed, it will still save lives.With inputs from AFP.
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