“I’m like,’Dad, no … something is wrong,’ and I grabbed him,” Powellsack told CNN. The person behind me also started running.
“And in retrospect … and that was exactly this sea of panic, and people were just falling and falling,” she recalled.
Pawelczak, who has just returned from Arizona, said he attended an event as a kid and went to a parade to deepen his ties with his father. After her band passed, she heard a long round shot-probably over 50, she said.
She believed she had seen at least one shot dead and suffocated and told CNN. I didn’t immediately know who it was.
She said they hid behind a trash can for about an hour after she grabbed her father and before police took them and others to a sporting goods store. She and her father were fine, but others in the store were injured.
“A man was shot in the head-like an ear. He was bleeding all over his face,” Pawelczak told CNN. “There was another girl who was escorted and (who) was shot in her leg.”
Pawelczak and her father waited in the basement until police escorted them from the store.
Outside, the streets were “quite cluttered,” Pawelczak said, and there was “blood everywhere.”
“It looked like a battle zone,” she said. “Gun violence is never okay. We must not be insensitive to this.”
“Run, run, run-there is a shooter”
Warren Fried, who attended the parade with his wife and seven-year-old twins, said he saw police and ambulances passing by at the parade and then heard a series of gunshots. People began shouting “shooters” and “runs,” and he and his family fled towards their car for safety.
“People were hiding, the kids were just in shock, and they were on the street looking for their parents,” he said.
Another attendee, Miles Zaremsky, who has lived in the area for about 37 years, first thought that the shooting was a flashback from a parade vehicle or fireworks.
As it continued, he realized it was from a gun-and he saw people rushing away.
“I saw blood on the sidewalk. I saw a bloody body that looked dead,” Zaremsky told CNN. “It made me sick. It was just chaotic.”
Debbie Glickman, 54, was dancing to the music, she said, “suddenly I saw people fleeing the parade.”
“One of my friends … said,” Run, run, run-there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter! “, She recalled. Glickman ran and saw no shooters or injuries, she said.
“People thought the firecrackers might not have worked, but they were running, and … it was an absolute mess,” she said. “It was by far the most horrifying thing that has ever happened to me.”
“I was surprised that it took so long.”
Larry Bloom, who has lived in Highland Park for 15 years, told CNN that when he heard “pop, pop, pop,” he biked to the parade and stood just to the right of the bandstand.
“Then it just opened. The rain of gunshots was very fast and for quite some time at least it was visible,” Bloom said. “Then everyone got up, turned around and ran, trying to put something off.”
Bloom said many people attended early in the celebration. “Imagine the parade is full of spectators. It was so many people. It’s the same direction,” he said.
According to Bloom, the ammunition seemed to come from across the street, targeting the area of the crowd he was in, but it was difficult to determine where the shooter was. “It was right above us,” he said. “I can’t imagine it from the rooftop.”
Most people left the area when the shootings stopped, the ammunition disappeared and police came in, Bloom said.
“Over the years, given the temperature in this country and some of the demographics of the town here, every year I am surprised and grateful that it hasn’t happened yet. And in a safe place. After arriving, I was able to breathe in for a few seconds, I really just thought, “Yeah, hey, it finally happened here, this is ours.” Unfortunately, I’m surprised that it took so long. That sounds terrible, “Bloom said.
CNN’s Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnn.com
