A person of interest has been arrested Monday in connection with a shooting at a July 4 parade in the Chicago suburbs of Highland Park, Illinois, that killed six people and injured at least 30 others.
Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen said officers detected Robert E. Crimo III, 22, less than an hour after he was named a person of interest. There was a brief police chase before Crimo was finally arrested and arrested without incident.
Officials have yet to interview Crimo before they can designate him as a suspect in the shooting and file charges against him, officials said.
“This person is believed to be responsible for what happened,” Lake County task force spokesman Chris Covelli told reporters, but added that police “have even more work to do” before confirm Crimo’s participation.
The shooting occurred about 15 minutes after the 10 a.m. morning parade of the quiet neighborhood’s festive parade, with the shooter aiming at spectators from the roof of a business with a high-powered rifle, according to police.
The story continues under the ad
0:46 Police name person interested in July 4 parade shooting in Illinois Police name person interested in July 4 parade shooting in Illinois
Covelli said the shooting was “very random” and “very intentional,” and that the suspect was discreet and difficult to see. The rifle has been recovered from the roof and is currently being investigated.
Police had no reason for the shooting.
The gunman reached the roof via an alley staircase attached to the building that was unsafe, officials said.
Authorities have released this photo of the person interested in the Highland Park, Illinois shooting, Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III pic.twitter.com/H3JGMOOcny
– philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 4, 2022
The story continues under the ad
More than 100 officers spent the afternoon searching for the suspect with the help of FBI and SWAT teams. Buildings and businesses in the area were cleaned and residents were told to take refuge in their place.
More than a dozen police officers surrounded a house listed as Crime’s address in Highland Park on Monday. Some officers held rifles as they fixed their eyes on the house. Police blocked roads leading to the house in a wooded neighborhood near a golf course, and only allowed select law enforcement cars to cross a closed outer perimeter.
Law enforcement officers search as they enter a building after a mass shooting at the July 4 parade in Highland Park in downtown Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago on Monday, July 4, 2022. AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh
Crimo, whose name is Bobby, was an aspiring rapper with the stage name Awake the Rapper, posting dozens of videos and songs on social media, some sinister and violent.
In an animated video since YouTube removed him, Crimo talks about armies “walking in the dark” while a drawing of a man pointing a rifle, a body on the ground and another figure with his hands in the distance appears. A rear frame shows a close-up of a chest with shedding blood and another of a police car arriving as the shooter raises his hands.
The story continues under the ad
In another video, in which Crimo appears in a class with a black bicycle helmet, he says he’s “like a sleepwalker; I know what I have to do,” and adds: Everything has led to this. Nothing can stop me, not even myself. “
Crimo’s father, Bob, a longtime owner of a deli, unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Highland Park in 2019, calling himself “a person for the people”.
Trend stories
-
Inside Ontario group homes where children were called “paychecks”
-
Unemployment in Canada has fallen, but some companies are struggling to hire. Here’s why
0:40 The crowd flees after the shootings at the July 4 parade in Illinois The crowd flees after the shots sound at the July 4 parade in Illinois
Twenty-six patients were sent to Highland Park Hospital with gunshot wounds, according to Dr. Bringham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness at NorthShore University Health Center. Their ages range from eight to 85, he said, and include four or five children. Some are in critical condition, including a child, and 19 have been cared for and discharged.
Five of the dead are adults who died at the scene, while another of unknown age was taken to hospital and died there, according to Lake County coroner Jennifer Banek. Authorities are in the process of notifying their families.
The story continues under the ad
At least one of the dead was Mexican, a senior Mexican foreign ministry official said on Twitter.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that “the heart has been broken for the people of Highland Park, Illinois, who wanted nothing more than to celebrate their country this morning, but whose lives had changed forever.”
“To the wounded and the loved ones of the victims: Canadians keep you in our thoughts,” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that he has offered full federal government support to affected communities and that he has “increased enforcement of federal law to aid in the urgent search for the shooter.”
1:23 Police Respond to “Active” Shooting at Illinois Independence Day Parade Police Respond to “Active” Shooting at Illinois Independence Day Parade
Mayor Mary R. Rotering said the community was “terrified by an act of violence that has shaken us to the core.”
The story continues under the ad
“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims at this devastating time. The day we gathered to celebrate community and freedom, instead we are mourning the tragic loss of lives and fighting the terror it caused us.” he said.
The Chicago White Sox advanced with their game against the Minnesota Twins after talking to Major League Baseball about postponing it. The post-match fireworks show was canceled and a moment of silence was observed before the first release.
“Our hearts are with the Highland Park community,” the White Sox said in a statement.
Highland Park is a united community of about 30,000 people located on the shores of Lake Michigan, north of Chicago. Complete with lakeside mansions and estates, the quaint American suburb has appeared in movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and was once home to NBA star Michael Jordan when he played for the Chicago Bulls. It is nearly 90 percent white, but about a third of the population is Jewish, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency.
Empty chairs sit on the sidewalk after parade attendees fled the July 4, Highland Park parade after shots were fired, Monday, July 4, 2022 in Chicago. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Chicago Sun-Times via AP
Gina Troiani and her son were getting ready to walk down the parade route Monday when they heard a loud sound that they thought were fireworks until others said there was a shooter, she told the Associated Press.
The story continues under the ad
“We started running in the opposite direction,” he said.
“It was kind of chaos … There were people who broke away from their families, looking for them. Others just dropped their wagons, grabbed their kids and started running.”
The video footage shows sounding shots while the parade was underway with hundreds of attendees.
Read more: US President Joe Biden signs historic arms security bill: “Lives will be saved”
A U.S. representative from Illinois, Brad Schneider, tweeted that he was at the parade when the shooting began and that he and his team are safe and secure.
The United States has recently faced a series of mass shootings, including one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 people and another at a supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. who killed 10.
Schneider in his message said he is committed to making communities safer and that “enough is enough,” and Biden added that there is still work to be done.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Monday that mass shootings have become an “American weekly tradition.”
“This madness must stop.”
Police in several local municipalities, including Illinois State Police, are searching the center of Highland Park after the mass shooting at the July 4, Monday, July 4, 2022 parade in Chicago. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Chicago Sun-Times via AP
The shooting is likely to revive the U.S. debate over arms control and whether stricter measures can prevent mass shootings that are becoming more frequent in the country.
The story continues under the ad
Following the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings, Congress last month approved its first major federal weapons reform in three decades, providing federal funding to states that administer “red flag” laws designed to eliminate people’s weapons. considered dangerous.
It does not prohibit the sale of …