At least 23 people were shot, one fatally, early Sunday local time, during a gathering in a suburban Chicago parking lot that drew hundreds of people to celebrate Juneteenth, authorities said.
TV news video showed the strip mall lot in Willowbrook filled with debris and police tape, about 32 kilometres southwest of Chicago. The DuPage County Sheriff’s Office described it as a “peaceful gathering” to celebrate Juneteenth that suddenly turned violent as a number of people fired multiple shots into the crowd.
“We know of 22 victims injured and one victim killed by gunfire. Several other victims were also injured while attempting to flee the area,” the sheriff’s office said. Authorities didn’t immediately release the conditions of those injured.
A motive for the attack wasn’t immediately known, and no one was arrested by early evening. Sheriff’s spokesman Robert Carroll said authorities were interviewing “persons of interest” in the shooting, the Daily Herald reported.
The Willowbrook shooting was just one in a string of weekend shootings across the US that killed at least six people, including a Pennsylvania state trooper, and injured dozens. The shootings in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington State, Missouri and Maryland follow a surge in US homicides over the past several years.