Two police officers shot during Fourth of July celebration in Philadelphia – New York Daily News

A pair of police officers were shot during a July Fourth celebration in Philadelphia, just hours after gunfire erupted during an Independence Day parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.

Thousands of people were gathered together along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for an evening of music and fireworks when the shooting unfolded on Monday around 9:45 p.m. One officer, a 36-year-old Philadelphia police department highway patrol officer, sustained a graze wound to the head.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told ABC 6 everyone is grateful that he did not sustain more severe injuries.

“It is miraculous that the round stopped in his hat,” she said. “It initially, I think, went up the inside, hit his forehead, and then the round stopped in his hat.”

The second officer, identified as 44-year-old John Foster, a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputy assigned to the bomb squad task force, was struck in the right shoulder

Both officers were working security at the annual celebration. They were rushed to to Jefferson University Hospital where they were treated and released early Tuesday morning.

“While we are thankful that Deputy Foster and the injured Philadelphia officer are OK, we are troubled by the violence that turned what should have been a celebration into a near tragedy,” the MCSO said in a statement.

No other injuries were reported in connection with the incident.

The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police is offering a $20,000 reward for information on the gunman. No suspects have been named and anyone with information in the case has been asked to come forward.

In a separate shooting hundreds of miles away in Illinois, six people were shot and killed while celebrating Fourth of July in Highland Park. Authorities said the gunman perched on a roof above the parade route and opened fire on the crowds gathered below.