Police arrested on Monday night (4) Robert E. Crimo III, suspected of being the shooter who killed six people in a parade celebrating Independence Day in the United States.
The 22-year-old man was detained near Lake Forest, Illinois, officials said during a brief press conference.
Authorities said Crimo was spotted by an officer from north of Chicago who was organizing a traffic stop. Crimo fled the blitz and the police began a pursuit, until the man was arrested in Lake Forest.
He was arrested and taken to the Highland Park Police Department.
When questioned, officials said they are still calling Crimo a “person of interest” as they investigate and connect him to the crime.
Shooting
A shooting in downtown Highland Park, a city in Illinois, USA, during a July 4th parade left at least six people dead on Monday (4).
The city of Highland Park, a suburb about 40 kilometers north of Chicago, canceled its Independence Day parade after the tragedy.
The shooting caused children to abandon tricycles and parents to run to safety with their children, turning a civic show of patriotism into a scene of panicked chaos.
“It looked like fireworks,” said retired doctor Richard Kaufman, who was across the street from where the gunman opened fire, adding that he heard about 200 shots.
More than 36 people were injured, mostly by gunfire, said Jim Anthony, a spokesman for NorthShore University HealthSystem. The 26 victims taken to the Highland Park hospital were aged between 8 and 85, said Brigham Temple, an emergency room doctor.
The New York Times newspaper named one of the dead as 76-year-old Nicolas Toledo, who was in a wheelchair and did not want to participate in the parade, but his disabilities required him to be around someone full-time and his family could not participate. I wanted to miss the event.
“We were all in shock,” said his granddaughter Xochil Toledo. “We thought it was part of the parade.”
At least one of the dead was Mexican, a senior Mexican Foreign Ministry official said on Twitter.
Police said the shooting took place from the roof of a business that the gunman reached through an alley staircase attached to the building.
Joe Biden
President Joe Biden said he and his wife Jill were “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has once again brought grief to an American community this Independence Day.”
Biden said he “aggravated federal police to assist in the urgent search for the shooter.”
In his statement, Biden referred to the bipartisan gun reform legislation he recently signed but said much more needs to be done and added, “I will not give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence.”
Highland Park’s population is 30,000 and nearly 90% white, according to the US Census Bureau. About a third of the population is Jewish, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The shooting will likely reignite the American debate over gun control and whether stricter measures can prevent mass shootings that happen so often in the United States.
*With information from Eric Cox of Reuters
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
