Boy alone and covered in blood in Highland Park shooting on July 4th

A young boy has been reunited with his grandparents after being found all alone during the chaos of the recent mass shooting in America.

Strangers at the July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, took the child to safety amid yesterday’s killing spree.

The boy was grabbed by a local cook when a gunman with a high-powered rifle opened fire from a nearby rooftop.

Bloodstains were seen on the child’s leg and shoes, but it was unclear if the blood was his or someone else’s.

He has since been reunited with his grandparents at a local hospital, but it’s unclear if he was with them or his parents at the parade.

CBS Chicago’s Jackie Kostek shared photos of the boy to find his family and wrote, “Do you know this kid?

“A Highland Park chef says the child is safe after the shooting but is with strangers.”

Six people were killed and at least 31 others seriously injured in the massacre in the affluent Chicago suburb.

About 10 minutes into the parade, at 10 a.m. local time, shots were fired and a klezmer band continued playing for a moment, unaware of the shooting.

Robert E. Crimo III, 22 — a musician known as “Awake the Rapper” — was later arrested after a brief police chase that ended in a northern Lake Forest suburb.

Gina Troiani and her son were lined up with his kindergarten class, ready to go on the parade route, when she heard a loud bang.

At first she thought the noise was fireworks until she heard people screaming and yelling about a shooter.

“We’ll just walk in the opposite direction,” she said.

Her five-year-old son rode his bicycle, which was decorated with red and blue ribbons, and he and his fellow children carried small American flags.

Details of the event posted online said there was to be a children’s bike and pet parade.

Gina recalled pushing her son’s bike during the rampage and running across the neighborhood to get back to her car.

“It was just kind of a mess,” she said. “There were people who were separated from their families and were looking for them. Others just dropped their car, grabbed their kids and started running.”

Matt Phillip, director of a tasting room at Lynfred Winery, said he heard “what sounded like fireworks” before seeing people “running down the street”.

“We opened our doors so they could either take shelter in our facility or go out through our back door,” he added.

Matt said 30 people took shelter inside the store for about 15 minutes.

Miles Zaremsky, who has lived in the neighborhood since the 1960s, says he saw crowds “pounding” and saw “blood on people’s bodies.”

“Two or three people looked dead to me[around 25 to 40 years of age]. It was absolutely disgusting and heartbreaking and I had a sick stomach,” he said.

“I saw a little boy [covered in blood] in the arms of his parents who were looking [pale]. They were screaming for paramedics… It’s surreal, it’s like something out of science fiction, but it’s real.”

Highland Park resident Debbie Glickman was on a float with colleagues when she saw people from the area running.

“People started saying, ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,'” she told reporters. She added: “So we just ran. We just walked. It’s like mass chaos down there. I’m so freaked out It’s just so sad.’

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 313 mass shootings in the US so far this year, averaging 11 per week.

President Joe Biden says he is “shocked” by the Highland Park massacre, which was the 15th mass killing of 2022.

He called the attack another example of “senseless gun violence that has once again caused grief to an American community.”

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