Great Lakes Drag away shooting

Suspect at large; authorities seek black vehicle

Three men are dead following a shooting at Great Lakes Drag away in Kenosha County.

Three men were shot to death at Great Lakes Drag away on Sunday, Kenosha County sheriff’s officials said.

The suspect remains at large, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said at a news conference Sunday night. Authorities are searching for a black vehicle, he said.

The victims were shot at “point blank” range, he said.

Around 7 p.m. the Sheriff’s Department received a call that three people had been shot during Larry’s Fun Fest at the motor speedway near Union Grove, said Kenosha County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Malecki.

Another 911 caller reported someone had been killed.

Two of the men were pronounced dead at the scene and the third died in an ambulance on the way to a local hospital.

Organizers of Larry’s Fun Fest were expecting around 5,000 people from southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois to attend the event, which features “smaller souped-up, kind of ‘Fast and Furious’ type vehicles,” Malecki said.

The west frontage road leading to Great Lakes Drag away on Highway KR between I-94 and Highway 45 was shut down by officers.

All three victims were from Illinois and at least two were from Aurora, Ill., said Beth, who spoke to distraught friends of the victims.

“My basic conversation with them is they have no idea what caused this,” Beth said. “The three men shot were standing near a food vendor when the suspect walked up and shot them point blank.”

The suspect was described as a black man in his 20s wearing blue jean shorts and a black hoodie.

The sheriff said he didn’t know if the gunman knew the victims.

“We’re not aware of any altercations that happened earlier. At this point we’re not aware of exactly what caused this,” Beth said.

The type of weapon was unknown. Beth said he didn’t know if the shooting was gang-related though there were “issues last year (at Larry’s Fun Fest), but nothing to this degree.”

Many of the spectators at Larry’s Fun Fest left soon after the shooting, which was originally reported by 911 callers as three people being shot point blank.

“I’m thinking this was a mass exodus, though I can’t say for sure. It didn’t take us long to get everybody to leave,” said Malecki, adding that the evacuation made it difficult for authorities to establish a crime scene.

Great Lakes Drag away is a quarter-mile drag strip that opened in 1955 in the Kenosha County Town of Paris.

Larry’s Fun Fest was billed as part car show and part drag race.