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In the midst of the chaos of a Chicago-area parade massacre, a woman walked up to Greg Ring and handed him a 2-year-old boy, covered in blood. Ring took the child, who was crying for his mom and dad, to a fire station, where he was asked to keep him, while authorities tried to deal with the shooter. The family drove to Ring’s in-laws' home, where the boy sat with Ring’s 4-year-old, watching a Mickey Mouse show. It wasn’t until later they were able to identify him and reunite him with his grandparents. Aiden McCarthy’s parents, Kevin and Irina, both died in the shooting, which killed seven people and wounded more than two dozen others.

The man charged with killing seven people at an Independence Day parade confessed to police that he unleashed a hail of bullets from a rooftop in suburban Chicago and then fled to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he contemplated shooting up an event there. That's according to authorities who spoke Wednesday. Robert Crimo III turned back to Illinois, where he was later arrested after deciding he was not prepared to pull off a shooting in Wisconsin. An Illinois judge ordered Crimo to be held without bail. A prosecutor said police found the shells of 83 bullets and three ammunition magazines on the rooftop that he fired from.

Days after a rooftop gunman killed seven people at a parade, attention has turned to how the assailant obtained multiple guns and whether the laws on Illinois books could have prevented the Independence Day massacre. Illinois gun laws are generally praised by gun-control advocates as tougher than in most states. But they did not stop Robert E. Crimo III from carrying out the attack in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. One focus is on the state’s so-called red-flag law, which is intended to temporarily take away guns away from people with potentially violent behavior. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says experts disagree strongly about whether ivory-billed woodpeckers are extinct, and it's putting off a final decision on the question to review information. The bird with a 30-inch wingspan and a high, nasal call was among 23 animals the agency said last year it was planning to declare extinct. On Wednesday, it announced a six-month delay for a decision on the ivory-billed woodpecker. It also is reopening public comment for one month, and the agency is looking for new photos or videos that are so clear that independent observers all agree they show the birds.

Supporters of an effort to oust Los Angeles County's progressive prosecutor say they have filed more than enough signatures to qualify for a recall election. The campaign to remove District Attorney George Gascón spent about $8 million to gather 717,000 signatures they delivered by truck Wednesday to be verified by election workers. Even if 20% of signatures are invalidated, which has been typical in California recall efforts, the number would still exceed the required 567,000 signatures that represents 10% of the county's registered voters. Gascón says he is confident he will capture a majority of votes if he faces a recall.

A rural Georgia monument that some people have dubbed “America's Stonehenge” has been demolished after a bomb destroyed one of its four granite panels. The bombing comes weeks after a Republican candidate for governor claimed the Georgia Guidestones were satanic and called for their demolition. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says the monument near Elberton was damaged by an explosive device and that authorities demolished the remaining structure for safety reasons. The roadside attraction was built from local granite in 1980. It was 19 feet high and bore messages in eight languages for living in an “age of reason.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says his main campaign committee raised $3.8 million in the two months ended June 30. However, heavy spending leading up to the Republican’s blowout primary win means Kemp’s total amount of cash on hand continues to fall. Kemp spokesman Cody Hall says the incumbent’s main campaign committee had $6.4 million in cash on June 30. Democrat Stacey Abrams has yet to report numbers. Abrams has raised more than $20 million for her main campaign committee since announcing in December that she would run. Kemp has raised more than $23 million over a longer period, topping the $22.4 million he raised in 2018.

A new report on the Uvalde elementary school massacre in Texas says a police officer had a chance to open fire on the gunman but missed it while waiting for permission to shoot. The report also says some of the 21 victims at Robb Elementary School likely “could have been saved” on May 24 had they received medical attention sooner. The report is yet another damning assessment of how police failed to act on opportunities that might have saved lives in what became the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012.

Police in Richmond, Virginia, say they thwarted a planned Fourth of July mass shooting after receiving a tip that led to arrests and the seizure of multiple guns. Police announced the alleged plot Wednesday. Chief Gerald Smith says the investigation began after a call from a “hero citizen.” He says that citizen learned of plans for an attack on an Independence Day celebration and reported it to police. Authorities have arrested two men on firearms charges. The announcement comes days after a violent attack on a July Fourth parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park that killed seven people and injured dozens.