I grew up in Highland Park. Never imagined....

Pretty horrific 4th for my home town. I've attended more Independence Day parades there than I can count. That's me in 1969 (video link*) competing in the Soap Box derby (I'm the dude in the orange/yellow car). Sunset Foods sponsored me. I remember the Cortesi Family who owned the grocer giving me $70 to build the car. The family still runs the store.

I don't think Highland Park has changed much since I grew up, but the number of mentally disturbed people with access to firearms sure has. Whatever your stance on our 2nd Amendment, perhaps it's time that law enforcement have search/seizure rights for people who are mentally unhinged, post disturbing violent stuff on social media (like this guy did) or have known gang ties? Not sure our founding fathers wanted the insane/gang bangers to own semi automatic weapons.

*Taken by my Uncle Ted.

Highland Park July Fourth Parade Shooting Leaves at Least Six Dead; Police Apprehend Person of Interest

High-powered rifle recovered after gunman opened fire from a rooftop in the Chicago suburb

Police apprehended 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo, III in connection with a mass shooting in Highland Park.

By Douglas Belkin,, Joe Barrett, and Alison Sider, WSJ

Updated July 5, 2022 12:01 am ET

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.—Police late Monday apprehended a person of interest in a shooting at a July Fourth parade in this Chicago suburb that left at least six people dead and more than two dozen wounded.

Robert E. Crimo III, a 22-year-old from Highland Park, was caught in a car in the nearby town of Lake Forest following a brief pursuit, after he was spotted by an officer, according to local law enforcement.

Chris Covelli, spokesman for the major crimes task force in surrounding Lake County, said earlier in the day that the shooter used a high-powered rifle that was recovered from the scene and that he had been difficult to see from his position on a rooftop.

The shooter appeared to have targeted spectators, Mr. Covelli said, adding that the parade was about three-quarters complete when the attack began. By the time officers reached the roof from which the gunman was firing, he had used a ladder to escape through an alley.

Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said five adults were killed at the scene and have been identified, but their names haven’t been released. She said she didn’t know the age of the sixth victim, who died in a hospital.

NorthShore Highland Park Hospital received 26 people wounded in the attack, 25 of whom had gunshot wounds, Brigham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness for the facility’s parent health system, said at a news conference. Their ages ranged from 8 to 85 and four or five were children.

Nineteen were treated and released by early Monday evening, according to Dr. Temple.

Officers raced to the shooting scene in Highland Park, Ill., where five people were killed; a sixth person died at a hospital.

PHOTO: TANNEN MAURY/SHUTTERSTOCK

Streets that were filled in the morning with people celebrating the 246th birthday of the U.S. were by the afternoon cordoned off with police tape, marking the latest scene of a mass shooting in the country.

The sidewalks along Central Avenue where the parade took place were covered with the items families left behind when they fled for their lives, including red plastic wagons, small American flags and beach chairs with half-filled cups in their drink holders.

Witnesses said that when they initially heard the sound of gunshots they assumed it was fireworks.

The shooting started at 10:14 a.m. local time at 2nd Street and Central Avenue, according to Highland Park police. At least six people died.

Among them was Illinois State Sen. Julie Morrison, whose district includes Highland Park. She was just setting out on the parade route in a convertible with her adult children, grandchildren and staff members when she heard the noise.

Then two women came running backward along the route, screaming, “‘There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!’” Ms. Morrison said.

“I just couldn’t even register that that was a possibility,” she recounted. “We were kind of frozen in place and then there was this wave of people, this whole rush of moms and dads. They’re screaming and carrying their kids and running. And we knew it was a real thing.”

July Fourth Parade Shooting in Highland Park Leaves at Least Six Dead

More than two dozen people were wounded in the mass shooting in this Chicago suburb

Ms. Morrison at first got down on the floor of the car and then, after everyone was accounted for, she and her group left the area.

“I will never subject my family or my friends or my volunteers to anything like that again,” the Democrat said. “Unfortunately, that’s just the way our world is now. And we need to step up and take action to change it.”

Highland Park, an affluent city of 30,000 about 20 miles north of Chicago along Lake Michigan, canceled the Fourth of July event and asked people to avoid the area. Nearby towns including Evanston and Deerfield also canceled their Independence Day festivities.

“I ask all Illinoisans to pray for the families who have been devastated by the evil unleashed this morning in Highland Park,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families with children celebrating a holiday with their community.”

President Biden said that he had spoken with Mr. Pritzker and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and offered the full support of the federal government.

Aaron Persaud was watching the parade from in front of a Walker Bros. pancake house directly across from the building where the gunman was positioned. After the shooting began, Mr. Persaud grabbed his 3-year-old son and crouched behind a trash can, while his wife and two older boys ran into the restaurant.

About 10 minutes after the shooting, someone pointed out to his wife that she was bleeding from her back, so she went to a hospital where doctors said she had been hit by a piece of shrapnel, Mr. Persaud said. The doctors decided to bandage the wound and leave the shrapnel in place.

Mr. Persaud’s wife told him that before she left the pancake house, she had looked out the window and saw the carnage from the shooting.

“She didn’t tell me what she saw, but she said she wished she hadn’t looked,” he said.

Jan Wolfe contributed to this article.

Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com, Joe Barrett at joseph.barrett@wsj.com and Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com

Appeared in the July 5, 2022, print edition as 'July Fourth Parade Shooting Leaves at Least 6 People Dead'.