A child’s sandal lays on a sidewalk just out side of crime scene tape, as empty lawn chairs and strollers were left in a hurry after a person opened fired at the crowd during a 4th of July parade in Highland Park, on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)
The First Mass Shooting I Was Sent To Cover
Ever since Columbine I knew that the chances I would be asked someday by a news outlet to cover a mass shooting was pretty much inevitable. That day would come July 4th, 2022.
The photo above the one I’m really going to talk about outside of captions on the others. It will stick with me for a long time. As a freelance photojournalist in the Chicago area, I, like so many, started out stringing for the weekly Pioneer Press newspapers. They had a different publication for just about ever little burb in the North Shore area and beyond.
I built my early portfolio on Memorial Day & 4th of July parades all around there while on assignment. I’ve been to downtown Highland Park a few times because of this and knew the lay of the land. It’s how I ended up on the east side of town along Green Bay Road and not where the majority of the press had been pooled up. It wasn’t my first time there.
Being there before and knowing how lively the parades normally are, it was eerily quiet as I walked down First Street. A police officer from a neighboring town let me and another photographer know the road was off limits to vehicles, but we could walk down as long as we didn’t cross the crime scene tape.
A police officer lets other police vehicles out of the perimeter around Central Ave and 1st Street, the sight of a mass shooting scene in Highland Park, the United States on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)
You didn’t see much until you almost reached Central Ave and the abandoned strollers, wagons, and lawn chairs were everywhere. This lone sandal and another photo of a Doctor Seuss Cat in the Hat stuffed-animal left behind with a fancy $900 high-end stroller had more of a feeling that the “Rapture” had happened here, if it wasn’t for the yellow police tape flickering in the breeze.
Police vehicles line the emergency room entrance at North Shore Hospital in Highland Park, as extra security measures where taken after a mass shooting happened less than a mile away, on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)An empty UPPAbaby stroller, worth about $900 brand new, was just left-behind with a stuffed animal, after people fled a mass shooting on Central Ave in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)Law enforcement members take photos and investigate the site of a mass shooting during a 4th of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)A law enforcement sniper looks out over downtown Highland Park and Central Ave as the suspect of a mass shooting was still at-large in Highland Park, on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)The V.I.P. grandstand of the 4th of July parade sit empty draped in stars & stripes bunting after a mass shooting in Highland Park, the United States on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)SWAT team members prepare to enter a home-of-interest after a mass shooting in Highland Park, on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)An armed law enforcement officer stands off to the side of a home the suspect of a a mass shooting was know to have a connection to in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)A man hangs out his second-floor window and presumedly videos a SWAT team entering a home of the suspect of a a mass shooting was know to have a connection to in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)SWAT team members with the Illinois State Police, stand behind an armored vehicle before entering a home of the suspect of a mass shooting was know to have a connection to in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)An officer from Barrington Police Department, 20 miles west of Highland Park, stands watch in the rain on the perimeter of a mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)The members of the press gather at the intersection of Central Ave and St. Johns Ave, under a large America flag, just two-blocks away from the site of a mass shooting during a 4th of July parade on Central Ave in Highland Park, Illinois on July 4, 2022. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson)
