CORRECTIONS:
GABRIELA VICENCIO was the first ON CAMERA eyewitness to indicate a shooter on the roof of THE ROSS building - in multiple televised interviews.
The first eyewitness claiming to have seen a shooter atop Ross was via a phone interview shortly after CBS Chicago went live with their coverage. The witness was Shawn Cotreau - just about 1.5 minutes into the CBS broadcast.
As July 4th unfolded, media rushed to the scene to begin live coverage that would stream for an entire day. Many eyewitnesses would stop to speak with reporters while others chose to call in and speak over the phone instead. Statements varied wildly in their details or lack thereof of what was witnessed and what was heard and what wasn’t actually seen first hand.
For the first several hours confusion as to the location of the shooter - or shooters - was a frequently discussed topic with the focus prominently on the rooftop of Uncle Dan’s (now Gearhead Outfitters) at the northeast corner of Central and 2nd.
The first eyewitness to appear on camera and indicate that they had, in fact, seen the shooter on the rooftop of the Ross building (at the northwest corner of Central and 2nd) would do so first at 12:27pm CST on WGN Chicago, again at 12:43pm CST on CBS Chicago, and again at 1:02pm CST on Fox32 Chicago. She would also provide a statement to the Chicago Tribune.
[12:27pm] On WGN Chicago, she identified herself as Gabriela Martinez.
[12:43pm] On CBS Chicago, she identified herself as Gabriela Martinez.
[1:02pm] On Fox32 Chicago, she identified herself as Gabriela Vicencio.
See.. in every lie there is a tiny glimmer of truth, so let’s see what sparkles amongst this bullshit.
BREAKDOWN:
Gabriela Vicencio is a 34 year old Highwood, IL resident and a divorced mother. She is employed at both McDonald’s and Buffo’s Pizzeria and is a prolific TikToker. She was married to 36 year old Highwood resident Jaciel Martinez until the inconvenience of his mistress led to a separation and subsequent divorce from Gabby.
Most all of Gabby’s social media content chronicles her immense - and at times obsessive - struggle to accept the failed relationship or cope with it in a healthy way. She details her dark descent into depression over her heartbreak. And look, on the real, I’m not faulting or judging her for that. But only that.
The heart wants what the heart wants. I’m familiar.
On July 3rd 2022, she posted to Facebook a bitter 6th wedding anniversary message to her ex-husband. She continued posting into the early hours of July 4th, 2022.
As she stated to the media, she had not intended to go to the parade because of current mind state but changed her mind when she found out her relatives would be attending.
Those relatives, she confessed to WGN Chicago, were her former in-laws - Namely Jaciel’s sister. She had intended to bring her daughter to the parade to ensure she stayed front and center on their radar; not Jaciel’s side chick. Jaciel did not attend.
During the chaos that ensued, Gabriela called her ex husband to pick her and her daughter up even though she had driven there and had a full tank of gas to get home (more on that later). Even though, she said, the police were after Jaciel as well (?)
She said he arrived to the crime scene within 5 minutes of being called.
HOW, I do not know.
Later in the day she began giving media interviews outside of North Shore Highland Park Hospital, stating she was there to check on her niece (actually, her former niece-in-law), who had scraped her leg while running away with the crowd.
Again. I am not judging, but, okay, I kind of am. When an ER is receiving an influx of patients from a reported mass shooting and someone takes a valuable bed for a leg scrape, I have questions. But whatever.
During her first on camera interview, she identified herself as Gabriela Martinez, her married name. She also stated she called her husband for help after being in the direct path of the shooter and seeing him on the rooftop of the Ross building.
By 1pm, in an interview to Fox32, she reverted to her maiden name, Vicencio.
She would continue to speak about the parade in social media posts that remained public, at times thanking her ex-husband and referring to him as her best friend, in the duplicitous hope of garnering his sympathy and attention which she had openly been craving for months and posted candidly about online.
The attempt failed.
Currently, on TikTok, she labels herself as a single mother and a Domestic Violence Survivor.
She still posts frequently about her ex-husband.
A TikTok from October 2022 makes a thinly veiled reference to having spent the previous couple of months making mistakes, and other unsavory details.
She also speaks openly about her desire to become a social media influencer who receives sponsorships and PR packages and doesn’t have to work a 9-5 job.
If she had been live on Facebook as she first stated to reporters, the live itself has been scrubbed or privated. No photos of Gabriela or her daughter at the parade are posted online. No TikToks of Gabriela or her daughter at the parade are posted online. Gabriela’s only digital proof of attending the parade rests solely on her media interviews and reposts online, so that’s what we’re going to use.
On a separate Facebook account, Gabriela spoke in slightly more detail about the event. In a photo posted the morning of July 4th, she showed her gas tank and captioned it with having been at the gas station with only $10 when an angel filled her up to F.
The post was time-stamped at 10:43 am, but was likely posted at 9:43 am (EST to Central time zone).
In a photo posted ten days later, her daughter is seen visiting the Memorial Site that had been placed at Port Clinton Square and directly contradicts the accounting she gave reporters as her parade location, stating multiple times on television that she had been standing on the corner in front of Uncle Dan’s/Gearhead.
She claimed to media reporters that her incredibly close proximity to the Ross building gave her the ability to see the supposed shooter on the roof, and placed her clearly in his sights.
I’m paraphrasing, of course, because…
*nope, not yet*
..must…resist…
Yet, here we see a photo of her daughter returning to the place they had actually been standing when the shots rang out.
She said on Facebook that she had been positioned next to Nicholas Toledo who was one of the unfortunate seven fatalities, and shifted between whether he was to her direct left or to her direct right.
Vicencio never mentioned in any accounting how the man to her left, or her to like, wherever, was pelted by gunfire, or mentioned being hit by any blood.
In fact, Vicencio was entirely unscathed and free and clean of blood spatter.
WEIRD.
Her daughter’s photographic location is tucked well within Port Clinton Square, on what would still be the Southeast corner of Central and 2nd, east of the Walker Brothers Pancake House that sits directly on the corner and also fully obstructs the view of the Ross building from this spot.
This is a point that will be revisited again, and again, and again - not just here.
FROM THIS SPOT THE VIEW OF THE ROSS BUILDING IS OBSTRUCTED BY WALKER BROTHERS. ALSO FROM THIS SPOT, A SNIPER WOULD HAVE TO LITERALLY BEND THEIR FUCKING BULLETS TO HIT YOU FROM THE ROSS ROOF - BUT THAT IS FOR ANOTHER POST.
After Bobby’s arrest, she posted on Facebook several times with a slightly racist undertone added to her snark.
Like, okay. Everyone is angry when there’s a shooting. That’s a given. But honey.
You’re mad at your ex, not at Bobby.
*nope nope*
….keep….resisting…
She called for Bobby’s execution and hoped he would be shot and killed by police. She wished ill upon his family. She denounced the role mental health could play in a mass shooting, yet consistently displayed her own struggles with it for literally anyone to view.
Yet on TikTok on July 13th, she returns to the dark hole of despair once occupied by her unfaithful (and now criminal, abusive, violent, and drug abusing?) ex-husband, and publicly said she wished she would have died that day - due to the pain of her divorce.
Mama, maybe that could have been a possibility if you had actually been standing where you were supposed to be, so you could skip to the front of the TV line in the most disrespectfully, pathetically gross attempt imaginable of getting your ex back.
..Oof. There it was.
INTERVIEWS
FOX32 CHICAGO STATEMENT: ( as Vicencio)
[timestamp 1:02:21] [1:02pm CST]
CLIP
Location: in front of Gearhead
“Was live on Facebook, then closed it to go on Snapchat.”
Heard fireworks and later realized by the panicked crowd that it was shots. Turned around and “saw a shooter on the roof of Ross shooting toward the crowd.”
“Body went numb, fell to the ground in a panic.”
Heard rapid fire of 20-30 shots. Saw 2 women in Gearhead with gunshot wounds to legs.
CBS CHICAGO STATEMENT: (as Martinez)
[timestamp 1:04:44] [12:43pm CST]
CLIP
same footage shot by WGN, with the exception of the reloading comment which does not appear in WGN’s segment.
“I actually saw the shooter on top of Ross Cosmetics, he was in the roof on top of Ross Cosmetics. Shooting towards the angle …….. We were all ducked down,
I started screaming for my niece, my little nephew, her husband, my daughter, then, I.. I think he was reloading I don’t know.”
WGN CHICAGO STATEMENT: (as Martinez)
[timestamp 1:15:10] [12:27pm CST]
CLIP
Location: In front of Uncle Dan’s (Gearhead)
“Well, I mean, I wasn’t really planning to go to the parade just because I’m not in the mood of any celebration whatsoever.. But yesterday my sister-in-law called me and said we should meet up and go - ‘it’ll be fun for the kids’ - so then around 9:45 I arrived with my daughter, my 9 year old daughter, to the parade and she was really excited to see the parade and I saw my niece.. I’m not gonna give her name..
And her son, her husband, her newborn baby, and we were just talking, you know, the parade.. We had just saw the pets go by, then I think around 10:05 the parade started, the official parade started, and the fire department went by, and then the horses went by, and then ..my son was actually going to be in the band parade but then he decided not to go at the last minute.. so then the marching band passed by, and as soon as they passed by, like probably 3-4 minutes later, we started hearing what I thought were fireworks in the beginning, so I didn’t really think anything of it.
And then I kinda glanced and started seeing people start panicking, and then I looked, cause I was standing right in front of where Uncle Dan’s store used to be, in that corner, Central and 2nd, and the shooter.. One of the shooters, was actually on top of the Ross cosmetics buildings [sic], aiming towards his, aiming to his left side, which is where we were so he was, he was facing that way [pointing down].
We all went into panic mode, we all ducked down in the beginning, and then as soon as I guess, I kinda heard ten to twenty shots, and then I started getting really panicky and really nervous. I went to get up and I started screaming out their names.
I saw my daughter, I grabbed her, she slipped out of my hands twice, and I was just screaming out her name and I lost my niece and her husband and then we were running towards Uncle Dan’s and I saw, I bumped into a 95 year old lady, which I didn’t mean to but as I saw her fall my instinct was to grab her head first and then I shoved my daughter into the store, and then I grabbed her to get her up and we ran inside the store away from all the windows. And then I started calling my ex husband, which he arrived within the next like 5 minutes ..”
[ABOUT THE SHOOTER]
“Well I mean I didn’t really see, like, who he was, I mean I just saw a person .. with a gun.. Shooting towards us. And I just glanced real quick.
So it’s just like, okay yeah it is happening.”
[JACKIE: EARLIER YOU DESCRIBED HIM AS A CAUCASIAN]
“Once we got into my babysitters house, my friends house, everybody on Facebook was kind of like describing him now, that he is caucasian with black hair and I guess there’s two shooters now.”
Reporter Jackie quickly interjects and cuts the interview here.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE STATEMENT:
Gabriela Martinez-Vicencio, of neighboring Highwood, went to the parade with her 9-year-old daughter and met up with other family members. She said she and a relative thought initially the blasts were fireworks.
“I just fell to the ground ... my daughter hugged, I guess, my nephew and my niece. Then as soon as I was able to reconnect myself, I grabbed my daughter because I started screaming out for everybody’s name that I saw and then we ran,”
Martinez-Vicencio, 33, said outside of NorthShore Highland Park Hospital, where she was told her niece was being treated for a minor injury after possibly scraping her leg while running away from the gunfire.
In the mayhem, Martinez-Vicencio bumped into a woman and they both fell to the ground. When she got back to her feet, she pushed her daughter into a store and tried to find a place to hide her. “I started crying. We all started crying.”
I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.
1. Were you in front of Uncle Dan’s looking at a shooter? Or not?
2. If so, when did you teleport elsewhere to necessitate the run back toward Uncle Dan’s after the shooting started?
3. If you were in front of Uncle Dan’s, as you claimed to be, with your daughter and sister-in-law and her family, and after the shooting started you hid inside Uncle Dan’s waiting for help, how did you lose your entire family before you ever started running? And have your daughter slip away from you twice in the .. what? 10 footsteps? To the door? It kind of seems like you ran much further than from simply the corner of Uncle Dan’s back inside the store, no?
4. If Nicholas Toledo was near you, as you claimed on social media, was he to your left or to your right?
5. Did you see Nicholas Toledo suffer any gunshot wounds? Did you just forget that it happened? How was he located directly next to you and you managed to avoid any blood spatter? You said you heard fireworks at first and thought nothing of it, so you didn’t immediately run for safety, right?
6. You only mentioned seeing two women inside Uncle Dan’s with gunshot wounds to the legs, but how did you miss the THREE fatal wounds on Mr. Toledo who was located beside you?
7. If you bumped into a woman running into Uncle Dan’s and knocked her to the ground, where were you when that happened and did you know her personally?
8. If, when you got into Uncle Dan’s to safety and started crying, and everyone started crying, and everyone was in a panic, did you still stop to make casual conversation to find out this woman’s age?
9. If you called your husband and he arrived within five minutes to retrieve you and and your daughter, how did you have time to get to know your fellow survivors inside of Uncle Dan’s, again, to find out this woman’s age?
10. How did you know the woman was 95 years old?
11. You said that both you *and* the 95 year old woman got back up and ran? Are you sure?
12. You said you cradled the woman’s head as she fell with one hand, while shoving your daughter into the store with the other hand (to Jackie), as you and the woman both lost your footing and fell to the ground (to Chicago Tribune). Did you suffer any injuries taking a fall like that?
13. What broke YOUR fall?
14. When and how did your niece scrape her leg, requiring a trip to the ER, if your escape was from only the corner back inside the store - and not all the way from the back of Port Clinton Square, up the steps and across Central Avenue to Uncle Dan’s?
15. If in fact you were running across Central Avenue to get inside of Uncle Dan’s, as I suspect you were, did you stop to glance at the Ross Building and see a sniper on the roof?
16. If you saw a sniper on a rooftop aiming “down and to his left” why did you continue running in the same direction he was opening fire on, according to you?
17. Why, if you were running toward Uncle Dan’s and saw a sniper on Ross, would you not turn and run a different direction?
18. Where was your car parked?
19. Were you getting gas at 9:43 or at 10:43?
20. If you were at the gas station at 9:43am, what time did you arrive at the parade again? You said 9:45am on tv?
21. If you were directly across the street and could visibly see the sniper shooting at you, putting you at VERY close range, you still originally assumed you heard fireworks and thought nothing of it at first?
22. When you hear a very loud bang very close to you, is it not the natural human response to turn in the direction of the sound? Wouldn’t you have seen the shooter in far less time than it took for panic to ensue among the crowd?
23. The eyewitnesses located further away from the Central Ave and 2nd corner described the sound of the gunshots as being similar to fireworks. Those who were closer to the scene described the sound of gunshots or the sound of a machine gun. Doesn’t this directly conflict with your version of events?
24. Another eyewitness who purported being on the same corner described the shooter on the rooftop of Ross as being very difficult to see. Yet you saw him clear enough to know he was aiming down and to his left?
25. You saw a shooter aiming down and to his left shooting at the angle, yet you only just glanced real quick and just saw a person shooting? What, exactly, did you see…?
26. How is Dr. Phil working out for you? Are you an influencer yet?
Cool Kids, sped up version.
Classy.