Six people were killed and at least two dozen wounded when a man with a high-powered rifle opened fire from a rooftop at a Fourth of July parade in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Highland Park on Monday, turning a civic display of patriotism into a scene of panicked mayhem.Police said they had identified a person of interest in the shooting, 22-year-old Robert E Crimo III, who was from the area.
They said he was driving a silver 2010 Honda Fit automobile.”He is considered armed and dangerous,” sheriff’s department spokesperson Christopher Covelli told journalists, adding that people should not approach him if they see him.Officials said a rifle was recovered from the scene.More than 36 people were injured, mostly with gunshot wounds, said Jim Anthony, a spokesman for the NorthShore University HealthSystem. The 26 victims taken to the Highland Park hospital ranged in age from 8 to 85, said Brigham Temple, an emergency room doctor.At least one of those killed was a Mexican national, a senior Mexican Foreign Ministry official said on Twitter.The shooting comes with gun violence fresh on the minds of many Americans, after a massacre on May 24 killed 19 school children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which followed a May 14 attack that killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.Children waving American flags, riding tricycles or enjoying a ride in a wagon pulled by adults froze as people in the crowd screamed while gun shots rang out, video on social media showed.One cellphone video, seen but not verified by Reuters, recorded what sounded to be about 30 rapid shots, a pause, and then another roughly 30 shots. Between the two bursts, a woman can be heard saying from the side of the parade route: “My God, what happened?”Police said the gunman remained at large.”He could be in the city. He could be somewhere else,” Covelli said earlier.
He said the shooting took place from the rooftop of a business that the gunman reached via an alley ladder attached to the building that was not secure.Police asked the public for tips and cellphone images and surveillance video to help find him. They did not have a motive for the shooting.President Joe Biden said he and his wife Jill were “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.” Biden said he had “surged federal law enforcement to assist in the urgent search for the shooter.”
