Shooting in the US: The suspect, 22,
Shooting in the US: The suspect, 22, "fired from a rooftop with a high-powered rifle"
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Six people were killed in a mass shooting at a US Independence Day parade in an affluent Chicago suburb on Monday, throwing a gloomy pall over the nation’s most patriotic occasion. Police made an arrest.

Robert Crimo, 22, was identified as a “person of interest” and the object of a large manhunt around the Illinois hamlet of Highland Park, where a rooftop shooter with a powerful rifle turned a family-oriented July 4 parade celebration into a scene of death and trauma.

As horrified bystanders fled for their lives as the shooter opened fire into the holiday crowd, the parade route was left littered with chairs, abandoned balloons, and people’s personal items.

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According to emergency personnel, some twenty persons, including children, were treated for gunshot wounds, with several being in severe condition.

Crimo was apprehended “without incident” following a brief car chase, Highland Park police chief Lou Jogmen told reporters.

He was armed and “extremely dangerous,” according to earlier police warnings.

With the internet alias “Awake the Rapper,” Crimo describes himself as a musician.

The shooting is a part of a wave of gun violence ravaging the US, where, according to the website Gun Violence Archive, firearms are responsible for almost 40,000 deaths annually.

It also cast a shadow over America’s Independence Day, when communities all around the nation host similar parades, citizens host barbecues, go to sporting events, and assemble for fireworks displays. Many people attend these activities while wearing some variant of the US flag.

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Major US news agencies claimed that two police officers were shot during a fireworks show in Philadelphia on July 4th, in another shooting.

Video from a high-rise building that CBS News aired showed crowds running away in terror as fireworks erupted in the sky. Police could not be reached Monday night, and the circumstances of that shooting were not immediately known.

The chaos was recounted by Emily Prazak, a parade participant, in Highland Park.

“All of a sudden, waves of these individuals began running after us, like running towards us, as we prepared to march down the street. And just before that, we heard a pop, pop, pop, pop, which I initially mistook for fireworks “told AFP, Prazak.

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She added: “Today is a national holiday in our country. Since many of us living here, even in this building, are all locked down, this is also a day when our freedom was taken from us.”

Targeting of spectators

Don Johnson, a spectator at the procession, claimed he initially believed the gunshots were the sound of a car backfiring.

We went into the gas station and stayed there for three hours when, finally, he said, “I heard the cries from a block down and people rushing and holding their kids and everything.”

I didn’t believe it would ever happen here, he continued, “but I’ve seen scenes like this time and time again on the TV and in different places.”

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The gunfire, according to police sources, started at 10:14 am, roughly three-quarters of the way through the march.

According to Christopher Covelli, spokesman for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, “It sounds like spectators were targeted… Very random, extremely purposeful, and very terrible.”

All six victims—adults—died at the scene, making up five of the total. After being transferred to the hospital, the sixth patient passed away from his injuries.

Dr. Brigham Temple of Highland Park Hospital, where the majority of the victims were transported, reported that 25 individuals with gunshot wounds, ranging in age from eight to 85, had been admitted there.

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He claimed that they included “four or five” children and that 16 persons later received their medical releases.

Police claimed that the shooter had been armed with a “high-powered rifle,” and that “firearm evidence” had been discovered on the rooftop of a nearby building.

Covelli stated, “All evidence point to him being discrete and very hard to observe.

According to US media, Crimo posted violent material online that included references to shootings and guns. Monday night, his social media pages on YouTube and elsewhere were unavailable for viewing.

According to the Chicago Tribune, a YouTube video uploaded eight months ago includes drawings of a shooter and victims of gunfire along with shots of a young man in a bedroom and a school.

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I must just do it, a voiceover declares.

It continues: “My future lies there. This is the culmination of everything. The only person who can stop me is me, “said the newspaper.

There have been 309 mass shootings so far.

President Joe Biden expressed his amazement and vowed to continue fighting against “the scourge of gun violence” that is ravaging the nation.

I won’t give up, he declared.

Just a few days after the Supreme Court determined that Americans have a basic right to carry a pistol in public, Biden signed the first big federal gun safety bill in decades last week.

Two murders in May—10 Black supermarket patrons were shot dead in upstate New York, and 21 people, largely children, were massacred at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas—reignited the bitter debate over gun regulation.

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As of July 4, 2022, there have been at least three additional mass shootings in the US, however none have resulted in fatalities, according to the Gun Violence Archive.