- Around two months before the mass shooting in Highland Park, anti-Semitic flyers were reported by residents.
- The considerable Jewish population in Illinois suburbs includes Highland Park, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
- One of the victims of the July 4 shooting was a Jewish synagogue worker.
Several weeks before the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, residents of the city reported seeing flyers containing antisemitic hate speech.
In late April, police responded to reports of antisemitic flyers in Highland Park and other local communities, NBC 5 reported.
The city's mayor, Nancy Rotering, said in a statement that "several residents reported the littering of east Highland Park with repugnant anti-Semitic hate speech, on Yom Ha'Shoah (Day of Holocaust Remembrance) of all days."
"This activity is a continuation of an ongoing effort to stoke hatred and mistrust throughout Illinois and the nation," she said.
The city of Highland Park condemned anti-Semitism and "all acts of hate," saying it "stands in solidarity with our Jewish community."
According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Highland Park is numbered among suburbs 25 miles outside of Chicago where at least a third of the 30,000 residents are Jewish.
During a press conference following the Fourth of July mass shooting, Chris Covelli, spokesperson for Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said on Tuesday police have not yet "developed a motive" from the shooting suspect.
When asked if the suspect chose the Highland Park community because of its high population of Jewish people, Covelli said: "We have no information to suggest at this point it was racially motivated, motivated by religion or any other protected status "
On Monday, shots rang out at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade as the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band played a joyful Jewish wedding song.
Among the six people killed, was Jacki Sundheim, a Jewish synagogue worker.
"There are no words sufficient to express the depth of our grief for Jacki's death and sympathy for her family and loved ones, "The North Shore Congregation Israel said in a statement.
"To think that someone was sick enough to use this as an occasion to unleash violence and mayhem and murder is, to me, so unbelievable, so wrong," Howard Prager, the Tuba player, told Insider's Nicole Gaudiano.
