Chicago shooting: two victims reported to be Jewish
At least two of the victims are reportedly Jewish while the Jewish community fears that the number of dead among its members will climb. The Chicago suburb has a large Jewish community.
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke with Israeli Consul General in Chicago Yinam Cohen on Monday evening and was briefed on the initial details of the mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, “a day of celebration has turned into a day of tragedy” as he put it.
WARNING: This is what a mass shooting looks and sounds like.
Just horrifying.
Highland Park
Videos taken from Reddit pic.twitter.com/Ssq3bXV0Zu
— Jim Drastic (@JimDrastic) July 4, 2022
At least six people were killed and 36 were wounded when Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III, 22, fired indiscriminately at a July Fourth parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park on Monday. He was arrested.
Cohen updated Lapid on the rescue and evacuation efforts as well as the casualties among the Jewish community.
“A day of celebration has turned into a day of tragedy. My thoughts are with the families of the victims and all the American people. Today as always, Israel stands with our American friends,” said Lapid.
Cohen said he was “following the horrible news from Highland Park. Our hearts and prayers are with the members of the community. We thank the local authorities for their immediate response.”
Antisemitism may be the motivation for the attack.
Minister of Defense Benny Gantz said that “on what should have been a celebratory day, my thoughts are with the American people following the horrific attack at the July 4th parade in Chicago. I express my condolences to the families of victims and wish a rapid recovery to the wounded. The people of Israel stand with you.”
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “our hearts go out to the victims, their families and the people of America. The fourth of July is a celebration of freedom and the founding of the great democracy of the United States. It should be a time of joy and not of mourning.”
Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry told J-Wire: “The Chicago suburb of Highland Park has a high concentration of Jewish residents and we already know that one of the victims of the mass shooting was Jewish.
It is too early to comment on the motivations of the alleged shooter, but the results are horrific. We send our heartfelt sympathy to the families of those who were killed and to the entire American people whose national day of celebration has been violated in such a brutal fashion.”
Rabbi Yaakov Glasman, President of the Rabbinical Association of Australasia told J-Wire: “The horrific murder spree in Chicago was the 309th mass shooting in the USA this year. This and all the other shootings have resulted in the tragic loss of so many innocent lives. Our Sages teach us that to save a life is to save a whole world but to destroy a life is to destroy a whole world. We pray for the souls of the deceased and we pray that the gun-accepting culture which leads to these appalling acts of violence changes in the very near future.”
