Highland Park MD Couple Turns Trauma to Action

Firearm Pandemic Series Part 2 in the May 2023 Issue of Chicago Medicine Magazine

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Elliot Lieberman, MD, a Highland Park ENT, along with his wife, Emily Lieberman, MD, a Glenview pediatrician, their two young daughters, then 5 and 8, and a dozen family members, were along the route of the annual Independence Day Parade in Highland Park. It was a family tradition for the Lieberman family and also for hundreds of their North Suburban neighbors.

Pow. Pow. Pow.

At first, Dr. Elliot Lieberman thought it was a bad joke, a prank. But then he saw puffs of smoke coming from a nearby rooftop. It became too real.

Pow. Pow. Pow.

Elliot and Emily each grabbed a child. Elliot ran and headed for their car—though he didn’t realize initially he didn’t have the key. He and his daughter fled on foot to shelter with a friend who lived nearby.

“You don’t know how many shooters there are. You don’t know in which direction the bullets are flying. It’s distinctly different than watching TV and hearing a handgun with two rounds go off,” Dr. Elliot said.

“Even though the sound of gunfire is extremely unsettling, there’s a horrifying uncertainty with this particular weapon [an assault rifle] because you don’t know how many coordinated efforts there may be, and if they’re coming toward you. The number of bullets really just sounds infinite.”

As hundreds ran for their lives around her, Emily had to push her mother and stepfather, both of whom have limited mobility, into a nearby store, a new wine shop, where they and more than 10 others cowered on a bathroom floor behind a locked door for hours and left before the Highland Park Police Department signaled an all-clear via a text message. Emily’s brother picked up the Lieberman doctors and their children in his car.

In the end, seven people died and 48 were injured by shots from a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle, an AR-15 style weapon whose initials stand for military and police.

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