The suspect who opened fire on the crowd during an Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb, bought his gun legally, fired more than 70 shots from a roof and dressed in women’s clothing to blend in with people, said local authorities on Tuesday (5).
The suspect, 21-year-old Robert E. Crimo III, was arrested Monday by police hours after the July 4th parade attack in Highland Park, Illinois, in which six people were killed and more than 30 were injured.
At a press conference, security officials said he had been planning the attack for several weeks, and were still considering what criminal charges to bring against him. It was not immediately clear whether Crimo had a lawyer.
Officials said they did not know the reason for the attack, which took place in a predominantly Jewish location, but said they had no evidence that there was any anti-Semitic or racist basis.
The suspect used a high-powered rifle in the attack, which he left at the scene before blending into the crowd and fleeing to his mother’s house. One reason he wore women’s clothing was to hide facial tattoos, police said.
He also had a similar rifle in his mother’s car, which he was driving when he was detained by police on Monday, and had other weapons in his home, all purchased legally, officials said.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering told NBC News of the “unbelievable sadness and shock” the community of 30,000 was facing.
“This tragedy should never have come to our doorstep,” she said. “As a small town, everyone knows someone who has been directly affected by this, and of course, we are all still stunned.”
Just a day earlier, the streets were decked out in red, white and blue as families watched the annual parade.
As the parade started through downtown, police said a gunman climbed to the roof of a business using a ladder in an alley and, without warning, opened fire with an assault rifle on the crowd below.
A retired four-star general, who declined to be named, was in the crowd when the shooting began. He told Reuters he took one of his granddaughters and ran to the Sunset Foods grocery store across the street.
“They were scared to death, they didn’t know what was happening,” he said, as he was brought to tears. “I put her against my chest and she told my daughter later that ‘Grandpa’s heart was pounding’.”
The injured ranged in age from 8 to 85, including four or five children, police said.
The attack comes at a time when episodes of gun violence are fresh in Americans’ memories, after a May 24 massacre killed 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and the attack. on May 14 that killed 10 people at a market in Buffalo, New York.
Source: CNN Brasil
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