Animations of blue and red fireworks and a sparkling United States flag designed to celebrate the Fourth of July have appeared over a Google page with search results of the most recent mass shooting in the country.
Anyone looking up “fourth of July” were met with an awkward display of celebratory animations backed by news alerts of a shooting at an Independence Day parade in Chicago that left six dead.
Google’s 4th of July tribute goes wrong when page is overtaken by news of mass shooting pic.twitter.com/C0pfjKxFk0
— BNO News (@BNONews) July 4, 2022
U.S. outlet BNO News shared the online oopsie early on Tuesday morning which was activated by clicking the day’s Google Doodle. It set off a whole-page animation of fireworks and a glittering stars and stripes flag over the search page, which is currently littered with updates about the shooting at Highland Park, Illinois.
The juxtaposition of the frivolity of the animation and the starkly devastating Top Stories of the latest mass shooting is an extremely apt look at the state of affairs in the United States, if anything.
On the Fourth of July, Americans celebrate with soaring ⚾️, dazzling 🎆 and backyard 🍔🍉🌭🍦
Today’s #GoogleDoodle commemorates the birthday of the United States. Read more here —> https://t.co/guBPwXNmCr pic.twitter.com/ML0W6YqV0r
— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) July 4, 2022
Per The Guardian, 30 people between the ages of eight and 86 were also injured in the attack on a parade on Monday. Five adults died at the scene and a sixth died later in a local hospital. Of the people hospitalised, one was a child with critical injuries.
The attack happened just after 10am when a gunman on a rooftop reportedly used a high-powered rifle to open fire on the 30,000-strong parade below.
One witness apparently heard more than 20 shots fired during the attack.
Police chief Lou Jogmen said 22-year-old Robert E Crimo III was a person of interest. He was arrested around 6:30 on Monday evening after a short pursuit some six hours after the shooting.
President Joe Biden said in a statement he was “shocked” by the recent attack and pledged that he was “not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence.”
