At least 23 people were shot, including one fatally, early Sunday during a gathering in a parking lot that brought together hundreds of people in suburban Chicago, authorities said.
A television video showed the parking lot of the Willowbrook mall, about 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, littered with rubble and police tape.
The DuPage County Police Department said it was a “peaceful gathering” to celebrate Juneteenth, or the Emancipation Day of Slaves in the United States, which suddenly turned violent when several people fired multiple shots into the crowd. .
“We have information on 22 victims with gunshot wounds and one dead victim. Several other victims were also injured while trying to flee the area,” he told police in a statement.
There were officers there guarding the gathering, but they had to leave due to a nearby fight, the police department added.
“They heard gunshots and immediately returned to the scene,” the department noted.
At the moment the reason for the attack is unknown and as of Sunday afternoon no one had been detained.
“We transported numerous victims from the scene of the events. Others walked to area hospitals,” said Eric Swanson, deputy chief of the police department.
Rick Wagner, who lives nearby, said there were at least 300 people in the parking lot at 10:30 p.m.
“We have had multiple conversations with the police” about large groups gathering there, Wagner told the Daily Herald.
“There were cars everywhere,” he added.
A witness, Markeshia Avery, said it was a Juneteenth celebration. Monday marks the federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865 that the slaves of Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
“We started hearing shots so we crouched down until they stopped,” Avery told WLS television.
Another witness, Craig Lotcie, said: “Everyone ran, and it was chaos.”
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