Shot fired, protesters pepper sprayed outside pro-Israel rally in Chicago suburbs

CHICAGO (AP) — Police arrested two people after one of them allegedly fired a shot and another pepper-sprayed protesters outside a pro-Israel rally in Chicago’s northern suburbs.

The rally took place Sunday evening at a Skokie banquet hall, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. About 1,000 people attended to show solidary with Israel, according to organizers.

A group of about 200 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the hall. A man allegedly drove his car into the group, got out and fired a shot before police took him into custody. A witness told the newspaper that the man’s car had been covered in Israeli flags.

A man coming out of the banquet hall wearing an Israeli flag as a cape sprayed the crowed with pepper spray before he was arrested. No one was seriously hurt in the melee.

Police in U.S. cities as well as federal authorities have been on high alert for violence driven by antisemtic or Islamophobic sentiments as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.

The Skokie rally Sunday came a little more than a week after a landlord in Plainfield, Illinois, was charged with a hate crime after he allegedly stabbed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and seriously wounded his mother. Police said he singled out the victims because of their faith and as a response to the war.