Massacre in Highland Park: A Citizen’s Eyewitness Account

Miles Zaremski, with his wife and his children (now grown and residing out of state), has been a resident of Highland Park for 46 years. As he tells it, he was "in the wrong place at the right time" to be able to recount what his eyes observed and his ears heard of the horror that occurred in Highland Park on July 4 and contributed the following commentary.

THE LEAD UP

It was a delightful day weatherwise to attend a July 4 parade honoring our nation’s birthday in my community, Highland Park, a 30,000+ northern suburb of Chicago. After all, I raised my two wonderful children with my wife there, also having attended by my recollection at least 30 of these celebrations over the years. I walked some blocks from my home and arrived at just when the parade commenced, around 10am. There were, as was typical, children with their decorated bicycles, red Radio Flyer wagons, those waving miniature flags, parents, seniors, pets, lawn chairs and blankets pockmarking either side of the parade route, all enjoying the festivities —smiling, waving and speaking to one another and to those on floats. There were also those that handed out various trinkets, mostly grabbed by the children. And as was also custom, the parade was led off with representative vehicles of our first responders, like the local fire and police department (sirens and horns blaring) as well as a vehicle or two from our EMT/paramedic services. Then came and scheduled various floats, the local high school marching band, acrobatic and musical groups, naval personnel from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, and private services and companies with their own advertised brands and vehicles. Local, state and federal officials joined in attendance too.

THE TRAGEDY AT 10:14am

After my arrival, I was walking to and from, but 15 minutes into the parade, I heard a pop, then two. At first thinking it must have been the backfire from one of the vehicles, then maybe it was errant firecrackers going off, but that would be way too early in the day to hear that type noise. But then, there were multiple pops in rapid fashion, and my mind said, gunfire? I thought I had heard 30 such sounds separated in sections by a couple of seconds, but with what law enforcement has reported, I was off by a factor of at least two. I remember such sounds when I was training as a reservist decades ago, but, nah, not in Highland Park, and not on July 4th. I was wrong, and retelling here what my eyes saw and ears heard, dead wrong!

When I heard these sounds, I was about a half-block, maybe more, from where it possibly was coming from, when all of a sudden, the crowd lining the street, rushed toward me as if a stampede of human flesh. They were escaping a gunman’s weapon of war indiscriminately spraying bullets to kill them. I continued step by step, but gingerly so, to where the general area where the gunfire had emanated, but by then which had stopped. I thought perhaps I could lend some assistance if there was a need, as I did have some first aid instruction years back.

I approached, and as I did, I saw blood on the adjoining sidewalk, then those injured with blood on their arms, their legs, and most stomach sickening and nauseating of all, observing not more than some feet away, three adults lying askew but motionless on the ground in pools of, or draped in, their own blood. There were others that came to their aid, but I suspect with no ability to offer life-saving measures for them, and who moments earlier were enjoying life, smiling and being present at a celebration of our country’s founding with family and friends. Then there was another individual, a young boy I recall, that was without movement, ashen to my lay vision, and was cuddled in the arms of what looked to be protective parents, one seemingly crying out for a medic. It quite possibly was that young child whose spinal cord was severed from a bullet to the chest, paralyzing him from the waist down.

It was all so incredulously sickening to see, even more graphic and disturbing than what we have seen and read on air or in print media of the over 300 mass killings this year alone in schools, grocery stores, places of worship, entertainment sites and other locations nationwide. I grabbed my head, and nearly breaking down, I said to myself, what the hell is this country coming to if it could happen to a suburban, tree-lined community like mine that respects life, is law-abiding, and is a great place to raise a family as my wife and I have done since the mid- 1970s. It felt like a bad dream, a science fiction movie, and continues to be so when I think about it. Of course, it was real, and certainly now quite personal for me.

Law enforcement was immediate to respond, including their long guns drawn, with at least a couple of their vehicles turned around that led off the parade. My assistance was not needed as I was not a trained first responder. I then walked home, thinking, maybe I should hide behind a bush or in a parking lot until the all clear was sounded. The shooter was captured, but only hours later. As we know, a day later he was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder, and media reports say now he has confessed.

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GOING FORWARD

So, What Now?

I well realize that, of course, certainly to a vast swath of Republicans, regulating guns, to the extent of banning assault style weapons and high-capacity magazines or to increase background checks is like taking away their first-born children. Even recalling Justice Thomas dissenting in 2015 from his colleagues on the Supreme Court refusing to take the case that challenged our city’s 2013 assault weapons ban is incomprehensible. He described then the type AR-style weapon used to kill seven Highland Parkers as a “modern sporting rifle” that many Americans use lawfully, like for “self-defense”. Say those words Mr. Justice as you look at those that senselessly lost their lives celebrating our nation’s founding in pools of their own blood.

But the simple truth is, guns kill, with no other purpose but to drain blood from the innocent. Guns, certainly AR-style firearms, cause immeasurable familial suffering from the loss of life and debilitating injury they cause. Yes, humans pull the trigger, but unless we remedy the root cause of at least stemming or reducing the gun violence epidemic — guns — this country will become an even less safe than it is now. What happens, for example, next year on July 4 in our community or elsewhere? Have the national guard line rooftops overseeing a parade route? Be too afraid to attend? Put up screens like in front of the Capitol or Supreme Court? This is becoming no longer the land of the free!

Sure, we can beef up resources to treat those with mental health issues, but when, and how, does anyone make a diagnosis sufficient to ensure that such individuals never have the ability to acquire and use an assault weapon? Red flag laws, while in place in some places like Illinois and if used effectively, are still found objectionable by many who believe, once more, in guns over life, take Texas governor, Greg Abbott, for example. Nothing but cowards. Facts also don’t lie and when the federal gun law was in place before it expired years back and never renewed, there were less deadly outcomes.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE — HP STRONG

I am no neophyte into believing that the politics over gun control is not complex and controversial. But if my eyewitness observations are of any benefit, it should further We the People electing legislators who will vote to remove from the general population deadly weapons of war and their high-capacity magazines used only to kill and maim innocent and unsuspecting citizens. But one thing is certain, history will forever be our guide, etched into our collective and institutional memory, so that what happened in Highland Park will never fade into the woodwork and from media exposure as so many mass killings — in this year alone — have done before. We will remain HP STRONG!

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