Doctor runs toward gunfire to help Highland Park victims 'literally blown up by these bullets'
More videos are being posted on social media showing a chaotic and frightening scene at a Highland Park Independence Day parade. While most were fleeing the scene, Dr. David Baum was running toward those falling.
In an interview with the Daily Beast and ABC7 Chicago, Dr. Baum said he was with his family about 200 feet from the casualties as the parade marched by.
"All of a sudden, you heard these Howitzer-type noises going off. Immediately people started screaming ‘Bodies down, shooter,’ and they all started scattering," he said.
"I told my family to run,” Baum recalled. He stayed, however, holding his location until the gunfire stopped. "Then I kind of just stuck around until I thought maybe, maybe there was no longer the threat."
“There were six bodies that were immediately assessed to be dead," he explained, describing them as "literally blown up by these bullets."
Police said during a briefing that the weapon recovered on the rooftop was a "high-powered rifle." They also reported that five were dead at the scene, but a sixth died at the hospital. Others were hit in their arms and legs.
"I saw horrific, devastating injuries, the kind that you normally see in a war," Dr. Baum continued.
He continued helping other emergency responders as those with injuries continued to seek medical attention.
“I don't think I need to describe the horrific nature of what the bullets did to those bodies, but it was horrific,” said Baum of the injuries. “As a physician for 33 years, blood doesn't bother me. But seeing people's heads blown up, and bodies eviscerated, would be disturbing to anyone who was there besides maybe a physician.”
"I do not want to be out there as anything other than, like, a physician who did not run for his life," Baum explained. "This is not hero stuff I did. The only thing I didn't do was run away."
\u201cDr. David Baum described the devastating scene after the Highland Park parade shooting. https://t.co/yK1GO6PtrT\u201d— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC 7 Chicago) 1656971592