Twins radio announcer Cory Provus: 'I was at that parade as a kid, year after year'

CHICAGO — There were no July 4th fireworks at Guaranteed Rate Field on Monday, as the Twins and White Sox played in the somber aftermath of a deadly rifle attack in the northern Illinois suburb of Highland Park. Major League Baseball consulted with both teams' front offices before deciding that the game would go on, albeit without the noisy postgame celebration.

"It's a real-life nightmare," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of the shooting, "and we're thinking about everybody involved."

But for Twins radio broadcaster Cory Provus, the tragedy was more than just frightening news reports.

"I was at that parade as a kid, year after year," said Provus, who grew up in the lakeside hamlet. "My first job was as a stock boy at Goodies, [a candy store] two buildings down" from the building where a sniper opened fire Monday on the parade crowd, killing six people. "Not even half a block away. That's my downtown. Yeah, it's a hard day."

It started barely more than a mile away from the murders. Provus stayed at his parents' house in Highland Park on Sunday night, "and we were having late breakfast this morning. I heard sirens, but I didn't think anything about it," he said. "Then my brother, on vacation in Michigan, called me and said, 'Are you guys all right?' He said there's a live shooter at the parade. Then within seconds, we heard helicopters."

The news kept getting worse all afternoon, as the death toll climbed, a manhunt began for the shooter, and Provus braced for the announcement of the victims' identities.

"There's a decent chance I know a few," he said. "A lot of people in my neighborhood go to that parade. It's just what you do. I'm sure I had a lot of friends there. It's just really sad."