A gunman on a rooftop opened fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago on Monday, killing at least six people, wounding at least 30 and sending hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers and children on bicycles fleeing in terror, police said.
The assailant remained on the loose hours later as authorities scoured the area.
Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen said Monday afternoon that police have identified 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo III as a person of interest and cautioned he should be considered armed and dangerous. Police declined to answer questions about how they identified Crimo. Authorities described his car as a silver Honda Fit with an Illinois license plate DM 80653.
The July 4 shooting was just the latest to shatter the rituals of American life. Schools, churches, grocery stores and now community parades have all become scenes of fatal shootings in recent months. This time, the shooting came as the country tried to find cause to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said the violence “has shaken us to our core,” adding, “on a day that we came together to celebrate community and freedom, we are instead mourning the tragic loss of life and struggling with the terror that was brought upon us.”
The shooting occurred at a location on the parade route where many residents had staked out prime viewing points early in the day for the annual celebration.
But dozens of fired bullets sent hundreds of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fleeing. They left a trail of abandoned items that showed everyday life suddenly disrupted: A half-eaten bag of potato chips; a box of chocolate cookies spilled onto the grass; a child’s Chicago Cubs cap.
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said five adults were killed at the parade and that she didn’t have information on the sixth victim, who was taken to a hospital and died there.
Roberto Velasco, Mexico’s director for North American affairs, said on Twitter Monday that one Mexican national was killed in Highland Park and added that two other Mexicans were wounded.
Dr. Brigham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness for NorthShore University Health Center, said the Highland Park hospital received 26 patients after the attack and all but one had gunshot wounds. Their ages ranged from eight to 85, and Temple estimated that four or five patients were children.
He said 19 of them were treated and discharged. Others were transferred to other hospitals, while two patients, in stable condition, remained at the Highland Park hospital.
‘Very random, very intentional’
The shooter opened fire around 10:15 a.m. local time, when the parade was about three-quarters through, authorities said.
Lake County major crime task force spokesperson Christopher Covelli said at a news conference that the gunman apparently used a “high-powered rifle” to fire from a spot atop a building where he was “very difficult to see.” Covelli said the rifle was recovered at the scene.
It was “very random, very intentional and a very sad day,” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden last month signed the widest-ranging gun violence bill passed by Congress in decades, a compromise that showed at once both progress on a long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were conducting an urgent trace of the rifle, agency spokesperson April Langwell said. Federal agents conduct such traces to identify when, where and to whom the gun was last sold.
Biden on Monday said he and his wife, Jill Biden, were “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.” He said he had “urged federal law enforcement to assist in the urgent search for the shooter, who remains at large at this time.”
Police believe there was only one shooter but warned that he should still be considered armed and dangerous. Several nearby cities cancelled events, including parades and fireworks, some of them noting that the Highland Park shooter was still at large. Evanston, Deerfield, Skokie, Waukegan and Glencoe called off events.
The Chicago White Sox also announced on Twitter that a planned post-game fireworks show is cancelled due to the shooting.
“You have a tragic mass act of violence that was random here today at a community event where people were gathered to celebrate, and the offender has not been apprehended thus far,” Covelli, the crime task force spokesman, said. “So, could this happen again? We don’t know what his intentions are at this point, so certainly we’re not sure of that.”
More than a dozen police officers on Monday evening surrounded a home listed as an address for Crimo in Highland Park. Some officers held rifles as they fixed their eyes on the home. An armoured vehicle was also parked in the middle of the road.
More than 100 law enforcement officers were called to the parade scene or dispatched to find the suspected shooter.
Hours after the shooting, law enforcement officers searched an office building near where the shooting occurred. Nearby, armed FBI agents in camouflage escorted a family with two small girls across Central Street.
‘Mass chaos’
Ominous signs of a joyous event suddenly turned to horror filled both sides of Central Avenue where the shooting occurred. Dozens of baby strollers — some bearing American flags, abandoned children’s bikes and a helmet bedecked with images of Cinderella were left behind. Blankets, lawn chairs, coffees and water bottles were knocked over as people fled.
Highland Park is a close-knit community of about 30,000 people located on the shores of Lake Michigan just north of Chicago, with mansions and sprawling lakeside estates that have long drawn the rich and sometimes famous, including NBA legend Michael Jordan, who lived in the city for years when he played for the Chicago Bulls. John Hughes filmed parts of several movies in the city, including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles and Weird Science.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement: “There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families with children celebrating a holiday with their community.”
Gina Troiani and her son were lined up with his daycare class ready to walk onto the parade route when she heard a loud sound that she believed was fireworks — until she heard people yell about a shooter.
“We just start running in the opposite direction,” she told The Associated Press.
Police in Highland Park, Ill., are asking the public for help after a gunman began shooting at a parade, killing six people while spectators fled for safety.
Her five-year-old son was riding his bike decorated with red and blue curled ribbons. He and other children in the group held small American flags. The city said on its website that the festivities were to include a children’s bike and pet parade.
Troiani said she pushed her son’s bike, running through the neighbourhood to get back to their car.
In a video that Troiani shot on her phone, some of the kids are visibly startled at the loud noise and scramble to the side of the road as a siren wails nearby.
A Fourth of July parade in Chicago was thrown into chaos as gunfire was heard, sending families running from the scene.
“It was just sort of chaos,” she said. “There were people that got separated from their families, looking for them. Others just dropped their wagons, grabbed their kids and started running.”
Debbie Glickman, a Highland Park resident, said she was on a parade float with co-workers and the group was preparing to turn onto the main route when she saw people running from the area.
“People started saying: ‘There’s a shooter, there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,”‘ Glickman told The Associated Press. “So we just ran. We just ran. It’s like mass chaos down there.”
She didn’t hear any noises or see anyone who appeared to be injured.
“I’m so freaked out,” she said. “It’s just so sad.”
