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6 Killed, Dozens Injured, Suspect At Large After Illinois Parade Shooting. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 04, 2022 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[15:01:23]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. Thank you for staying with us.

We, of course, covering the breaking news this manhunt happening right now for the man who opened fire at a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois. He's described as armed and dangerous. At least six people are dead. More than two dozen have been taken to hospitals. Now at a briefing a short time ago police described this suspect.

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CMDR. CHRIS O'NEILL, HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS POLICE: The suspect is currently described as a male white, approximately 18 to 20 years old with longer black hair, a small build and wearing a white or blue T- shirt. A firearm has been recovered from the scene.

CHRIS COVELLI, LAKE COUNTY MAJOR CRIME TASK FORCE: It does appear he was shooting from a roof. The roof that he was shooting from I don't have that information right now.

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BLACKWELL: We now know that the FBI is assisting in this investigation and authorities are asking, of course, anyone with video to contact Highland Park Police. We've known the video in situations like this has been crucial. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus was near the scene when the shooting happened. Adrienne, tell us what you know.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, this parade route has become a crime scene. If you look behind me, it's easy to notice people have left all of their belongings. But I want to show you the sense of urgency at this hour up on the roof of this building in downtown Highland Park, you see snipers on top of the building. This as members of law enforcement tell us they still do not know where that 18 to 20 year old suspect is.

As we've been telling you throughout the morning and now afternoon, at least six people have died and more than two dozen others injured. I spoke with folks who were here at the parade. One man told me he was using his cell phone to tape or video record the band that was passing by. The minute he stopped recording he said those shots rang out.

I spoke with another woman a short time ago, Zoe, she was here with her family. This is what she described. Listen in.

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ZOE PAWELCZAK, SHOOTING EYEWITNESS: I've been going to this parade since I was a little kid and I just moved back from Phoenix, Arizona. And my dad and I want to come here again as like a thing of father- daughter camaraderie and we got here nice and early for the pet parade and the kids parade, front row right across from Walker Brothers in Port Clinton.

About - a little bit after the band went through, we hear - and probably heard 50 rounds in total, at least. Everyone thought it was fireworks. Everyone was like, oh, fireworks, or the military people had just gone through with the shotguns. And I was like something's wrong. I grabbed my dad and started running.

All of a sudden everyone behind us started running. I looked back probably 20 feet away from me. I saw a girl shot and killed. The girl I've heard on the news but in blood, saw her die. I've never seen anything like this. We hid behind the dumpster for about an hour and then the police got us into Uncle Dan sporting goods where we hid in the basement for, I don't know how long it was, because time is kind of a blur at this point, but we hit there until the cops finally escorted us back to our car. They were wonderful. They drove us back to our car.

But I mean there were people that we were hiding with. One man had been shot in the head like his ear. He was bleeding all over his face. He was just - like I'm just happy that's all that happened. There was another girl that got escorted out was shot in the leg. We were just hiding in this basement for quite a while. But yes, we were right in the - I mean someone 20 feet away, someone just ...

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[15:05:00]

BROADDUS: As Zoe said, she's never seen anything like this. This is something nobody should ever have to see and back here we are along the parade route. And as we were mentioning earlier, chairs, you see a child's chair left behind. I see a wagon with a child's sippy cup on it. People left their belongings as they escaped for cover.

Zoe also told me that family that she was hiding with had children. The father asked her to watch over his children while he went to go search for other members of his family. But before leaving, Zoe said he put his child inside of the dumpster for protection.

I want you to let that sink in. A father, who felt helpless in that moment, found safety in a dumpster because of a disgusting thing that happened along this parade route. Investigators have described that suspect as an 18 to 20 year old male. They say he's a white male with dark hair. He was believed to be wearing a blue or a white shirt, Victor?

BLACKWELL: Adrienne Broaddus, that portrait of a father putting his child in a dumpster trying to protect the child from gunshots when they just packed up their lawn chairs and a cooler to go to the middle of town to watch a parade, it is awful, and it is a commentary on where we are in this country that even it happens on Independence Day. Adrienne Broaddus with the latest reporting there, we'll get back to you, thank you very much.

We know now from officials that the vast majority of the victims, they suffered gunshot wounds. Listen, we're about to show you an image. This is from the scene. It is disturbing. So I'll give you that heads up. Here it is. This is coming from an eyewitness.

You can see a woman. Her leg bloodied there. She's being taken care of by just people who were there on the street, also first responders. We're getting pictures and video from people who had the cameras out to record the kids walking by playing in the school band, instead they were eyewitnesses to the latest mass shooting in our country.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is with me now. What more are you learning about these victims, Brynn?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean your heart just sinks, Victor, right? I mean, looking at those images and also as you mentioned, these are many times you think a parade kids in a band. I've learned from colleagues who are from that area, friends as well, that there are moments where the kids are just on their bicycles riding through that parade (inaudible) ...

BLACKWELL: Brynn, I got to jump in, we're getting another update from police, let's listen.

COVELLI: ... give you as much information as we possibly can in a timely way where we're not going to impact criminal investigation, impact the safety of those on the scene actively looking for this individual or impact the safety of anybody else. So please keep that in mind, information might change, okay? I'm going to turn it over to the Commander. He's going to go over and talk about the initial scene response, what that sounded like what that look like.

O'NEIL: Greetings. Cmdr. Chris O'Neill of Highland Park Police, last name, O-N-E-I-L-L.

This morning at 10:14 am, Highland Park Police and Fire Department units were on scene for the Fourth of July parade that start at the city hall at St. Johns by the train station that was ran to Central Avenue and then West Sunset Park. Around 10:14 pm, we heard loud reports which we perceive as gunfire. Highland Park Police units immediately ran to the plaza area, the source, to locate and identify the source of the noise and the gunshots and gunfire.

We immediately identified that people were down that we had numerous people injured and shot. We communicated that information with our police dispatch, coordinated a medical response with the fire department and began setting up a inner and outer perimeter and also requested additional outside resources. We established a command post staging area here at the fire station on Central Avenue and we continue to obtain information or gather information to try to coordinate who was doing the shooting and where that person was last seen.

Firearm evidence was located on a rooftop of a nearby business, that was secured. Suspect description that we had at the time was broadcasted on the police radio and shared with responding and on- scene units. Highland Park Police and fire personnel began transporting injured parties to the Highland Park Police Departments and additional resources helped us at the scene.

We had an on-scene police commander which was myself, our patrol supervisor handled city wide command for any other incidents and then we had a commander assigned here at the fire station for the command post.

COVELLI: Most importantly, as far as the investigative aspect goes of this and this is two-pronged at this time.

[15:10:01]

Number one, we are aggressively looking for the individual who's responsible for the shooting. Number two, we have the criminal investigation that is occurring simultaneously. We're asking anybody with any video surveillance that they may have, please review your cell phones, if you were snapping pictures in the area of second central today that could help investigators. They may see something in there that may be useful and allow them to proceed further with the investigation.

Any business owners in that area, we're asking, please review your video surveillance. If you have any video surveillance of that area at that time, even if you don't see anything in there, we would love to be able to take a look at that so we can further our investigation. Again, the FBI is working in conjunction with us, we have well over a hundred law enforcement officers out here on the scene, doing the investigation on one side and doing the apprehension efforts on the other.

So this is very active, it's going to remain very active for the time to come. I'll try to answer some questions that I can. But again, please understand we can't give away certain aspects of the investigation. We don't want to negatively impact. We want to arrest the offender and hold them accountable for his actions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was the building sealed where the rifle was recovered and (inaudible) ...

COVELLI: I'm not sure of that right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are there any threats online or social media (inaudible) ...

COVELLI: None that I am aware of. Certainly, investigators are combing through social media to see if there's any clues or any information that they can uncover through social media that might help them with the investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have updates on the victims (inaudible) ...

COVELLI: So as of now we have approximately two dozen victims that were transported to area hospitals. There's a number of hospitals, some hospitals did require going on bypass due to receiving traumatic victims and such a high number of them. So hospitals throughout the region, both Lake and Cook County received patients from this and their conditions range, some critical, some serious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there early point that officers had sight of the suspect or made any contact with the suspect?

COVELLI: My understanding as of now is they ran for the gunfire, however, the suspect cease firing right around that point when they got close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And on top of the building, if it's a building where he's able to discreetly or (inaudible) during the shooting or with the (inaudible) in plain sight?

COVELLI: All indications is he was discreet and he was very difficult to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any information on the ages of the victims?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) where he might have stopped to reload (inaudible) he might stop and reload.

COVELLI: That's something we're looking at. Certainly evidence technicians are going to collect the rounds that were discharged from the firearm. Another thing to remember, this is what has been considered as a very massive scene. It's very large. You have where the shooting took place at Second and Central. But as people fled from the area, there's evidence and other things that may have gotten caught on their shoes, kicked around, so it's a very large scene. We're very fortunate to have the support of the FBI, but we're not going to leave any stones unturned. We're going to look at every angle of this throughout the investigation and try to figure it out.

As far as ages, the victims, the Lake County coroner will hopefully be here for our three o'clock press briefing and we'll be able to provide some information. What I know as of now, several of the deceased victims, unfortunately, perished at the scene and it sounds like one of them was transported to an area hospital where they're perished.

Again, this is preliminary, information changes, especially when there's close to 30 people transported to various hospitals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...

COVELLI: What I'll say right now is that it was a high powered rifle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ... COVELLI: I can't go into details just yet. We will release that information as soon as we can. We walk a fine line with any criminal investigation where we don't want to provide too much external information that can negatively impact what our detectives are doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know if the targets were - if the people targeted were marching in the parade or spectators or specific group of (inaudible) ...

COVELLI: Yes. A very sad situation where it sounds like spectators were targeted and even those that were marching through. The parade was approximately three quarters of the way through when the shooting occurred. So very random, very intentional and a very sad day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell us anything more about the (inaudible) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) or how far (inaudible) ...

COVELLI: We are working really hard to try to pinpoint where they could be. It's - I don't want to give bad information. He could be in the city. He could be somewhere else, but we're looking into it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) the county office ...

COVELLI: Yes. It's a very large conglomerate of law enforcement that's working together hand in hand. The Lake County Major Crime Task Force and the FBI are leading the criminal investigation into this along with Highland Park Police. They are very involved. Highland Park Police led the initial incident response and incident command when this was all rapidly unfolding.

As far as the search for the individual, we have enlisted the help of several federal partners. We have the state police. We have NIPAS, we have other SWAT teams that are on the scene here and all working together to further that aspect as well.

[15:15:06]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) as possibly identifying this (inaudible) ...

COVELLI: We're working as hard as we can. I mean, and we want to make sure that the information we're receiving and putting out is accurate, and that when the individual is apprehended, that's the correct individual. They're working. They're working hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as the structure of the building, can you tell us how or (inaudible) get on top of the roof and make a quick escape.

COVELLI: I might be able to provide that a little later. I don't have that right now. Let's do a couple more questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) ...

COVELLI: Sure. My name is Christopher Covelli, C-O-V-E-L-L-I, and I'm the spokesman for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said earlier that it (inaudible) communities to decide whether it's safe for them to hold gatherings today, is that because so many police resources are here or it's because (inaudible) ...

COVELLI: Well, I think there's a couple reasons - a couple of ways communities are going to look at it. Number one, you have a tragic mass act of violence that was random here today at a community event where people were gathered to celebrate and the offender still has not been apprehended thus far.

So could this happen, again, we don't know what his intentions are at this point. So certainly, we're not sure of that. And on the other hand, I think there's a lot of communities that are not looking forward to celebrating after something like this happens right in their backyard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...

COVELLI: As of right now, the information I have is there are six deceased, six.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And nothing more about their ages?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) of people in the crowd helping those who are injured?

COVELLI: There were - and I'm sure they will come forward in the days to come - but there were a number of heroic actions by members of the community, by police, by first responders that rushed in and immediately tended to the victims, tried to get them help. More to come on that later. Right now our focus is on the investigation and catching this guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a report of a child separated from (inaudible) or his parents, I believe, any updates there in terms of a family (inaudible) ...

COVELLI: So there - Highland Park Police has established a family and friends reunification post and that's at the Highland Park Police Department. So anybody that's looking for somebody or anybody that got lost or separated during the event, they can go there. The reunification is happening there. Again, folks ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) nearby businesses there, are they still being told to stay there?

COVELLI: Some people, business owners, employees of businesses have waited in their buildings for police escort. Right now the SWAT team is escorting people out of those buildings, getting them to safety and being there for them so they feel comfortable as they're leaving the facility. But three o'clock we'll be back, thank you folks.

BLACKWELL: All right. The latest there from Chris Covelli, again, spokesman for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force. A lot of moving parts right now, of course, at the top of the list, finding out where this suspect is. As you heard from Covelli, he says that maybe this person is still in the city of Highland Park, maybe he is somewhere else, but there are local, multiple local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and resources searching for him right now. They're asking for anyone who is there who has video, who has pictures to offer that up to Highland Park Police.

Let's bring in now retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Steve Moore, CNN National Security Analyst and former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem, Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Charles Ramsey and former defense attorney and former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake also with us. Thank you all.

Let me start with you, Steve. The video that they're asking for. They say even if you don't think you see anything, give this to us. We can use this as a piece of the puzzle. How crucial is this video that people may have in their phones sitting there waiting for the parade to pass by?

STEVE MOORE, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Well, it's going to be very crucial because it'll show things, very small things like people in the background when they heard the noise which direction did they turn, things like that will give directional information. I know they have a shooter hide or shooter position on the roof. But they need that kind of video to help identify this guy if possible.

They're also going to be looking on the roof to find out how long he was up there. If there was no water bottle sandwiches or anything like that he was probably not up there a long time. So even though he left his rifle, if you don't see a bag that he carried it in, your thinking maybe he took other weapons back with him and so there's some concerns about what he might be doing right now.

BLACKWELL: Juliette, to you, this is at least the 308th mass shooting in this country.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

[15:20:02]

BLACKWELL: And we've just gotten into the second half of the year. You can't fortify a parade route. I mean, it's not going to look like the inaugural parade after the election of a new president, so how do you prevent things like this from happening?

KAYYEM: Well, there's a - there is a lot of active shooter protocol and training for what we would call a soft target event. But the challenge, of course, is how much time do you have to respond. So just picking up on that presser, I'm just looking at these numbers. And here's what I heard six dead immediately at the scene and this is a scene that had police presence one did not make it - who was transported to the hospital. And those who are hospitalized were described to be in critical or worse condition. So that is just - that is a high power death machine of which you could fortify as much as you want, but it's - you're not going to be able to defend yourself. So we just have to remember that the defense only goes to the possibility of extending the time that it would take for first responders to get there. And with these numbers, you just don't - you basically don't have it.

I want to also just express an irony or just to a horror. We heard a lot of the witnesses talk about in one case, as you said, Victor, throwing a child into a dumpster. So the dumpsters are actually there as a response to a different kind of threat. We learned in terms of parades and crowd control or your crowd protection, because of vehicles ramming into crowds that they put dumpsters in. So this is just like this one of these horrible things where we just keep trying to minimize the violence wherever it comes from. But ultimately, on July 4th where there's families that they're still vulnerable.

BLACKWELL: Control room, rerack (ph) that video we just saw, please, the sky shot from our affiliate. And we see now that there are snipers on this rooftop and the shot that keep - it just resonates with me, is the American flag in the center of, I believe, this essential avenue that has been deserted. All that's left of police officers and the chairs left behind from people who came to watch the Independence Day parade and here we are, again.

I mean, it is uniquely American, that we have this Independence Day parade, and it is uniquely American, that we find ourselves in this conversation time after time after time. Chief, what did you hear from this news conference that pushes this investigation or what we know about this investigation forward?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I mean, there wasn't a lot of new information but, obviously, they're still searching for this individual. They don't know if he's in the immediate area or if he's in some other place. They don't know if the person arrived by car or whether the person walked. That's another thing, the video is going to be very crucial if they're able to recover video. They had to have access or gain access to the roof somehow, if he didn't do it hours before the parade, they may be able to spot him in the crowd or whatever, so they do need to get that video.

So again, anyone who has any kind of information, please, bring it forward. But they still don't know exactly who this person is. I don't believe they have a description. But I don't think they know exactly who this individual is. If they are, they have to play it close to the vest, because they've got to get their hands on him. And bad guys watch television too.

So they're not going to put too much information out at this point in time. But clearly, this was an assault weapon, which Juliette mentioned. It's devastating. I mean, absolutely devastating. The injuries that that type of weapon can inflict. So this is just a horrible scene, nothing sacred, you raise the issue of the Fourth of July. This can happen anytime, anyplace in this country, unfortunately. And we're covering it because it's a mass shooting, but we have people gunned down on the streets of our cities across America on a regular basis on a daily basis and there are many cities right now over the holiday weekend, in fact, multiple people killed and shot. So gun violence is a huge problem in this country. We got to get a handle on it.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Mayor - former Mayor of Baltimore, I'm from Baltimore and gun violence certainly was beyond mass shootings a challenge and has been in the city for a while. If people are reconsidering this night of all nights watching the breaking news going out what do you tell them?

STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, FORMER MAYOR OF BALTIMORE: You have to continue to do the things that bring us joy. We cannot let - I said it before, we cannot let this, what I believe, as a terrorist win. He's trying to cut at the heart of who we are, our community.

[15:25:03]

This person - he was bold and he was evil to go someplace where he - on a roof - he can't just evaporate. He had to go back into that crowd. That's bold, but it's also evil and we cannot let that win. So I would tell people, yes, go enjoy your cookouts, your parades, clearly in the area where this person may still be, they're not going to be celebrations. But in other parts of the country, we have to continue to celebrate to be in community, but also to be vigilant.

And to be vigilant not just at those parades, but at home. And we keep hearing about this type of individual, young, white male. If you know someone who's isolating, who's displaying odd behavior, let someone know. So we can - so that the authorities can investigate and see if this person is planning something like this.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Investigators say that thus far they're not aware of any threats online, anything on social media, but of course, we're just a few hours in and they are still searching. Mayor, thank you. Chief, Juliette Kayyem, Steve Moore, thank you as well. We, of course, will continue to follow the breaking news, this fatal shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois. Six dead, dozens injured. I'll speak with a man who says he was just 25 yards from the gunman, next.

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