Yesterday morning at approximately 10:10am, about 10 minutes after the Highland Park July 4th parade kicked off, a man positioned on a rooftop over the parade route opened fire with what has now been identified by authorities as a “high-powered rifle,” striking dozens of parade-goers, killing 6 and sending 26 to the hospital, 25 of which had sustained gunshot wounds. Of those 25, 19 have been released. According to hospital authorities, the age of victims ranged from 8 to 85.
In the early afternoon, authorities announced that they had identified a suspect in the shooting, 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo III. Crimo has been officially identified as a “person of interest” in the crime. No charges have yet been filed.
After a manhunt that involved over a dozen law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Illinois State Police, Crimo was taken into custody near Lake Forest, IL, sometime prior to 7pm.
Authorities said Crimo was spotted by a North Chicago officer who attempted to initiate a traffic stop. Crimo then fled and led officers on a brief pursuit before being stopped in Lake Forest, Illinois.
He was taken into custody without incident and taken to the Highland Park police department.
The “Person of Interest”
Robert “Bobby” Crimo III, 22, lives in an apartment behind his uncle’s house in just north of Highland Park. Crimo has lived in the area his entire life. The uncle, speaking afterwards, expressed his remorse for the tragedy. “I’m heartbroken. I’m so heartbroken.” The uncle stated that he had last seen Crimo Sunday “at his computer” and hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.
According to a report from CNN, Crimo posted “online music videos he apparently made that featured ominous sounding lyrics and animated scenes of gun violence. One video shows a cartoon animation of a stick-figure shooter — resembling Crimo’s appearance — in tactical gear carrying out an attack with a rifle. In another video, a similar stick-figure cartoon character resembling Crimo is depicted lying face down on the floor in a pool of his own blood surrounded by police officers with their guns drawn. The Facebook and Twitter accounts believed to belong to Crimo were taken down after he was named by authorities as a person of interest.”
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said several of Crimo’s online postings “reflected a plan and a desire to commit carnage for a long time in advance.”
The Weapon
Oddly, authorities have yet to identify the weapon used in the shooting, other than describing it as a “high-powered rifle.” Mayor Rotering said while she didn’t know where the gun used in Monday’s mass shooting in her city came from, she told NBC, “I do know that it was legally obtained.”
Desperate Scene
Eye-witnesses to the event described sheer chaos and terror.
The Chicago Sun-Times quoted Highland Park resident Miles Zaremski as saying “I heard 20 to 25 shots which were rapid in succession.”
He said the gunfire was at Central Avenue and Second Avenue. “It was people in that area that got shot, murdered, from a little child I saw, I don’t know if he survived, to a woman covered with blood and she did not survive. And there were others as well.”
A Chicago Sun-Times reporter saw blankets covering three bloodied bodies and five other people wounded and bloodied near the parade’s reviewing stand.
Several North Shore suburbs cancelled 4th of July festivities in the wake of the shooting.
