Families out for an evening at Gurnee’s Six Flags Great America were forced to take cover on Sunday evening when gunfire rang out in the parking lot, with three individuals suffering injuries during the incident.
According to police, the shooting occurred just before 8 p.m. in the parking lot, sending patrons scrambling for cover.
“Out of nowhere, a car pulled up where the pickup line is, and opened fire,” witness Herbie Alvarez said. “The scariest part about it was really seeing two people get shot like right in our face. We were 20 feet away from it. I didn’t have much time to think, but just to react.”
Authorities say that they received multiple calls of shots fired at Six Flags just before 8 p.m. Sunday.
The gunshots, according to a park spokesperson, were fired from a single vehicle in the parking lot. The vehicle then fled the scene.
Multiple individuals got out of that vehicle and fired shots at an unidentified individual.
A 17-year-old male from Aurora was shot in the upper right thigh, and a 19-year-old woman from Wisconsin was shot in the lower leg, and both were hospitalized.
A third individual suffered a shoulder injury, but declined medical attention.
Alvarez says that park personnel did a good job in responding to the shooting.
“They handled it with such care and smoothness, almost like they were trained for a situation like that,” he said.
He also says that patrons who were inside the park heard the gunfire, and began fleeing towards the exits.
“Everybody was trampling over each other,” he said. “A lot of people get hurt that way.”
There is no indication that the shooters got into the park, and an investigation remains underway as police try to track down the suspects.
Now, some families are expressing concerns about visiting the park in the aftermath of the shooting.
“It came up before we even got the opportunity to buy tickets,” Stacey Krause said. “Our son was concerned about going to Mall of America because of a shooting last week, so we rerouted our trip here to come to Six Flags.”