A doctor who was at the scene of the Highland Park mass shooting said he saw 'the kind of injuries you'd probably see in wartime'

• A doctor who was at the scene of the Highland Park shooting said he witnessed "horrific injuries."
• Dr. David Baum described victims' wounds as "the kind of injuries you probably see in wartime."

A doctor who was in the middle of the chaos of the Highland Park, Illinois, parade mass shooting on Monday said he saw people with "horrific injuries" at the scene.

Dr. David Baum told NBC Chicago he was about 100 yards from where people were shot and killed during the Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb.

Baum described hearing the "pow, pow" of a "Howitzer-type" weapon and said people began screaming and scattering moments afterward.

"You saw blood everywhere. You saw bodies down. You saw people screaming. You saw massive amounts of blood in the people who were gone," Baum told NBC. "There were a lot of bodies. Who was expecting to need 15 ambulances on the scene of our Highland Park parade?"

While his family ran off, Baum said he stayed at the scene with several others — including a nurse, a surgeon, and an emergency-room doctor — to help the injured.

"I didn't know what I could do, but I wasn't going to leave," Baum said. "All we could do was hold pressure, apply tourniquets. I started a couple of IVs."

He said the dead were quickly identified by paramedics, adding that these people had "horrific injuries."

Baum described the victims' wounds as the "kind of injuries you probably see in wartime" and the type that "probably happen when bullets can blow bodies up."

"And these bodies were, they were gone. They covered them up immediately and went on to try to get other people out," he added.

Baum also said he tried to help a young child who looked "horribly injured."

Other witnesses at the parade said they thought the gunshots they heard were part of the event.

One man, Larry Bloom, told NBC: "You heard like a 'pop, pop, pop,' and I think everybody kind of thought maybe it was a display on one of the floats — and then it just opened up."

Meanwhile, an unnamed man who spoke with ABC 7 Chicago said he initially thought people were saluting the flag with rifles but picked up his son and ran after realizing that wasn't the case.

"We ran behind the building, and I put my son in the dumpster. And he sat there with his dog," the man said, according to the outlet.

"It was just horrible. I went back, there was a few people shot on the ground," he added, according to ABC7 Chicago. "There was a little boy that was in one of the police officer's arms. That was the worst experience ever. Because, you know, all I thought about was my son, and I can only imagine what that family is going through."

At least six people died in the mass shooting, and dozens have been injured. Officials said they recovered a "high-powered rifle" from the scene and arrested the shooting suspect.