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The suspected Chicago shooter, a 21-year-old man, was taken into custody by police Monday and was charged Tuesday with seven counts of first-degree murder. Seven people died in the suburb of Highland Park, during a commemorative parade for the Independence Day of the United States. According to the authorities, the alleged assailant had legally acquired the rifle and had been planning the attack for weeks.
The events occurred in the suburb of Highland Park, north of Chicago, during a July 4 parade. A shooter fired more than 70 shots with an AR-15-style weapon from the top of a commercial building into a crowd that had gathered for the event. According to authorities, seven people died, including one after being taken to hospital, and more than 30 were injured.
The shots were initially mistaken for fireworks, before hundreds of people fled in terror, turning the memorial event into a scene of chaos. The shooter evaded capture by dressing as a woman and blending in with the fleeing crowd, police said Tuesday. After fleeing the scene, the suspect drove to Wisconsin and then back to Illinois. He turned himself in to police hours after the attack, following an intense search operation.
The suspect, identified as Robert E. Crimo, was charged Tuesday with seven counts of first-degree murder. If convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, Illinois State Attorney Eric Reinhard said in announcing the charges at a news conference.
The prosecutor added that the first-degree charges would be followed by dozens of additional charges before the investigation is complete, and that he would ask that Crimo be held in custody without bail at the suspect’s first court appearance on Wednesday.
Suspect spent weeks planning attack, authorities say
Robert E. Crimo is a 21-year-old white male. Investigators who have questioned him and reviewed his social media posts have not determined a motive for the attack or found any indication that he attacked anyone because of his race, religion or other protected status.
However, according to authorities, the shooter spent several weeks planning the assault and his online posts “reflected a plan and a desire to commit carnage well in advance,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said in an interview on Monday. the NBC.
Lake County Major Crimes Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli cited two previous encounters between Crimo and law enforcement: a 911 emergency call in April 2019 that he had attempted suicide and another in September of that year in connection with alleged threats he had made to members of his family.
Crimo, who was also called Bobby, was an aspiring rapper with the stage name of Awake the Rapper, who published dozens of videos and songs on social networks, some sinister and violent. Paul Crimo, the suspect’s uncle, told on Tuesday that he had seen “no signs to explain what he did.”
Highland Park community in shock
“It’s definitely a lot harder when it’s not only your hometown, but it’s right in front of you,” resident Ron Tuazon said as he and a friend returned to the parade route Monday night to retrieve chairs, blankets and a child’s bicycle that his family abandoned when the shooting began.
“Now it’s a regular thing,” Tuazon said. “We don’t blink anymore. Until the laws change, it’s going to be more of the same.”
The shooting was an “American tragedy,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said during a visit to Highland Park. “What happened in the parade and all the poor victims and those who died in the process breaks my heart,” he said.
Durbin called the bipartisan gun bill recently passed by Congress an important step, but said there are things this bill doesn’t address.
“There is no reason for a person to own a military assault weapon. It has no value for hunting, or for sport, or even for self defense,” he said, adding, “it is a killing machine.”
The purchase of the rifle used in the massacre was made legally
According to authorities, the rifle was recovered at the scene. The suspected shooter purchased it legally in Illinois within the last year.
In 2013, Highland Park officials approved a ban on assault weapons and ammunition magazines of more than 10 loads. The Illinois State Rifle Association was quick to challenge the liberal suburb’s stance. The legal fight ended at the gates of the US Supreme Court in 2015, when justices refused to hear the case and let the suburb’s restrictions remain in place.
President Joe Biden and the first lady were shocked by what happened and vowed to fight “the epidemic of gun violence” in the country.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been 15 shootings in the United States that have killed four or more people, including the one in Highland Park.
With Reuters and AP
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