A 22-year-old man identified as interested in a mass shooting that killed at least six people, injured at least 30 and sent hundreds of people to flee an Independence Day parade in the Chicago suburbs has been arrested .
Police said earlier that Robert E. Crime III was to be considered armed and dangerous and was arrested by police Monday evening after a brief chase.
Earlier, Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen said police had identified Crime as a person of interest.
Police escorted people from the area after the mass shooting in Chicago. (AP)
Police declined to answer questions about how they identified Crime.
Authorities described his car as a silver Honda Fit with an Illinois license plate DM 80653.
Highland Park Police Commander Chris O’Neill, the commander of the incident, urged people to take refuge at his place while authorities searched for the suspect.
The July 4 shooting was the last to break the rituals of American life.
Schools, churches, grocery stores and now community parades have become death grounds in recent months.
This time, the bloodshed came when the nation was trying to find reasons to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together.
Mayor Nancy Rotering said the violence “has shaken us to our core,” adding, “On a day when we come together to celebrate community and freedom, we are mourning the tragic loss of lives and fighting against the terror that provoked us. “
The shooting occurred at a point along the parade route where many residents had located privileged views in the early hours of the day for the annual celebration.
Heavily armed police stormed a nearby building after the mass shooting in Chicago. (AP)
Dozens of bullets fired at hundreds of people attending the parade, some visibly bleeding.
They left a trail of abandoned objects showing everyday life suddenly, violently interrupted: a half-eaten bag of chips; a box of chocolate chip cookies spilled on the grass; Chicago Cubs children’s cap.
“There’s no safe place,” said Barbara Harte, a 73-year-old Highland Park resident who had stayed away from the parade for fear of a mass shooting, but later ventured out of her home.
Lake County Major Crimes Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli said at a news conference that “several of the dead victims” died at the scene and one was taken to a hospital and died there. .
Spectators fled the parade after a gunman opened fire and killed at least six people. (AP)
Police have not released details about the victims or injured.
Lake County coroner Jennifer Banek said the five people killed in the parade were adults and have no information about the sixth victim who was taken to a hospital and died there.
Roberto Velasco, Mexico’s director of U.S. affairs, said Monday on Twitter that a Mexican was killed in Highland Park and added that two other Mexicans were injured.
Dr. Brigham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness at NorthShore University Health Center, said Highland Park Hospital received 26 patients after the attack and all but one had gunshot wounds.
A police officer from Lake Forest, Illinois, is walking down Central Avenue in Highland Park after a gunman fired at the July 4 parade in the northern suburbs of Chicago. (AP) Law enforcement is looking for the gunman. (AP)
Their ages ranged from eight to 85 years, and Temple estimated that four or five patients were children.
He said 19 of them were cared for and discharged.
Others were taken to other hospitals, while two patients, in stable condition, remained at Highland Park Hospital.
The shooter opened fire around 10:15 a.m., when the parade was over about three-quarters, authorities said.
Covelli said the gunman apparently used a “high-powered rifle” to fire from a point above a commercial building where it was “very hard to see.”
He said the rifle was recovered at the scene.
Police also found a staircase attached to the building.
“Very random, very intentional and a very sad day,” Covelli said.
After the mass shooting, empty chairs, a bicycle and a pram are seen. (AP)
President Joe Biden said Monday that he and First Lady Jill Biden were “swept away by the senseless gun violence that has once again caused pain to an American community on this Independence Day.”
He said he had “increased federal law enforcement to assist in the urgent search for the shooter, who remains at large at this time.”
Officers from the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were making an urgent trail of the rifle, agency spokeswoman April Langwell said.
Federal agents perform these traces to identify when, where and to whom the weapon was last sold.
Biden signed the broadest armed violence bill passed by Congress in decades, a commitment that showed both progress on an issue that has been unresolved for a long time and the deep partisan division that persists.
The shooting triggered a widespread police hunt. (AP)
Several nearby cities canceled events, such as parades and fireworks, some of which noted that the Highland Park shooter was still at large. Evanston, Deerfield, Skokie, Waukegan and Glencoe canceled the events.
The Chicago White Sox also announced on Twitter that a fireworks show scheduled after the game will be canceled due to the shooting.
“You have a tragic act of mass violence that was random here today at a community event where people gathered to celebrate, and the offender has not been arrested so far,” said Covelli, a spokesman for the task force. of crime.
“So this could happen again? We don’t know what your intentions are right now, so we’re certainly not sure about that.”
More than 100 police officers were called to the scene of the parade or sent to find the alleged shooter.
Hours after the shooting, law enforcement officers searched an office building near where the shooting took place.
Nearby, armed and camouflaged FBI agents had also escorted a family with two little girls down Central Avenue.
The children looked visibly frightened even as their mother tried to assure them that the officers driving and flanking them would protect them.
“Don’t worry, you’re safe now,” he told them.
“These guys will protect you.”
The ominous signs of a joyous event that suddenly turned into horror filled both sides of Central Avenue where the shooting took place.
Dozens of baby strollers were left behind, some with American flags, abandoned children’s bicycles and a helmet adorned with images of Cinderella.
Blankets, lawn chairs, coffees and water bottles were knocked down as people fled.
Highland Park is a united community of about 30,000 people located on the shores of Lake Michigan, north of Chicago, with lakeside mansions and estates that have long attracted the rich and sometimes famous, including the legend of NBA Michael Jordan, who lived in the city for years when he played for the Chicago Bulls.
John Hughes shot parts of several films in the city, including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles and Weird Science.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement, “There are no words for the kind of monster that is lurking and shooting at a crowd of families with children who are having a vacation with their community.”
Gina Troiani and her son were lined up with their daycare class ready to walk down the parade route when she heard a loud sound she thought were fireworks, until she heard people screaming over a shooter. . In a video that Troiani recorded on his phone, some of the children are visibly surprised by the loud noise and scatter along the side of the road while a siren cries nearby.
“We started running in the opposite direction,” he told The Associated Press.
His five-year-old son was riding his bicycle decorated with red and blue wavy ribbons. He and other children in the group carried small American flags.
The city said on its website that the festivities should include a parade of bicycles and children’s pets.
Troiani said he pushed his son’s bike, running through the neighborhood to get back to his car.
“It was kind of chaos,” he said.
“There were people who broke away from their families, looking for them. Others simply dropped their wagons, grabbed their children and started running.”
Highland Park resident Debbie Glickman said she was in a float with her co-workers and the group was preparing to turn onto the main road when she saw people running around the area.
“People started saying,‘ There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, ’” Glickman told the AP.
“So we just ran. We just ran. It’s like massive chaos down there.”
He heard no noise or saw anyone who looked hurt.
“I’m so scared,” he said.