The gunman opened fire during the parade, killing at least six people. He was spotted by a North Chicago officer conducting a traffic stop, fled, and was stopped after a brief chase.
Namely Robert E. Crimo III. The man named was taken into custody without further incident and taken to the Highland Park Police Department. When asked, it was said that the police still refer to Crimo as a “person of interest”.
A spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said it appeared that the perpetrator fired indiscriminately at the crowd from the roof of a commercial building during the parade. The firearm found at the crime scene was a “powerful rifle.” A doctor from a hospital near the scene said the clinic treated 25 people aged 8 to 85 with gunshot wounds, including several children.
The parade began on Monday morning (local time/5:00 p.m. CEST). A short time later the first shots were fired. After the parade, a US Independence Day celebration was planned in Highland Park, which the mayor canceled after the bloody crime.
The US has long struggled with massive levels of gun violence. At the end of May, an 18-year-old gunman massacred an elementary school in Texas: he killed 19 children and 2 teachers in the small town of Uvalde before he was shot dead by the police. The police were then criticized because they only entered the classroom where the shooter was holed up after a long delay. Just over a week earlier, an 18-year-old had shot ten people in Buffalo, Texas, and investigators assume a racist motive.
US President Joe Biden said he was “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has once again brought grief to an American community on Independence Day.” His statement said: “I will not give up the fight against the epidemic of gun violence.” Biden and his Democrats have long called for tougher gun laws. However, far-reaching reforms repeatedly fail due to the resistance of the Republicans in Congress and the influence of the powerful gun lobby organization NRA.
Source: Nachrichten
