Shooting outside Six Flags where 3 injured was ‘targeted incident,’ Illinois cops say

Three people were injured in a shooting outside Six Flags Great America in the Chicago suburb Gurnee, Illinois police say.

The shooting happened at 7:50 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 14, just before the the park closed for the day, the Gurnee Police Department said.

A white sedan drove toward the park entrance, where the suspects got out of the car and then shot toward another person in the parking lot, police said.

A 17-year-old male from Aurora, Illinois, was shot in the upper thigh, and a 19-year-old woman from Appleton, Wisconsin, was shot in the lower leg, according to police. They were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said a third victim had a shoulder injury but declined to be taken to the hospital.

The suspects “quickly left the area” in the white sedan following the shooting.

“The shooting this evening was not a random act, and appeared to be a targeted incident that occurred outside the park,” Gurnee police said. “This was not an active shooter incident inside the park.”

But at the time of the shooting, some people believed it was an active shooter situation.

Laurie Walker was inside the park with her daughter when she saw “people running in a panic,” WGN reported.

“’There is an active shooter, get down, get down,’” Walker recalled someone shouting. “We didn’t know what was going on, so we get down.”

Video shared on Twitter shows people hunched over in a ride queue, and park guests later exiting while police officers patrolled the parking lot.

Jeffery Cowell, who works at the theme park, said he helped hide some of the guests.

“Kids crying for their mom, mom crying for their kids. It was an experience that I don’t want to happen again,” he told WBBM.

In a statement to WGN and WBBM, Six Flags said it has cameras in the parking lot that allows the park “to react quickly and provide important information.”

“This evening, we are incredibly grateful to our team members who reacted in a professional manner to take care of our guests, and for the Gurnee Police Department for their on-going presence and commitment to Six Flags Great America,” Six Flags said in the statement.

Gurnee is about 45 miles north of Chicago and 15 miles north of Highland Park, where seven people were killed during a Fourth of July parade shooting.

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