(Highland Park) The suspect in the killings during National Day celebrations in Highland Park was charged on Tuesday with seven murders, matching the number of his victims, the attorney general for Lake County, north of Chicago, announced.
Posted at 1:21 p.m.
Updated at 6:57 p.m.
If convicted, Robert Crimo, 21, could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Lake County District Attorney Eric Rinehart said. “These are only the first of many charges that will be brought against Mr. Crimo,” he added.
The suspected perpetrator of the killings during National Day celebrations in Highland Park had been planning his attack “for weeks” and disguised himself as a woman to avoid identification, police in the nearby small town said on Tuesday. from Chicago.
Robert Crimo, 21, used a “powerful rifle similar to an AR-15” to apparently randomly fire into the crowd attending the July 4th parade from the top of a store, said Christopher Covelli, a police officer.
“We believe he has been planning this attack for weeks,” he said.
He had ‘dressed as a woman’ to hide his identity and may have worn a long hair wig to hide his face tattoos, he said, adding that he then dropped his gun and melted away. in the mass of fleeing people.
The young man fired more than 70 times, killing seven and wounding at least 35 according to a police report on Tuesday.
Among those who died are a couple, Irina and Kevin McCarthy, whose two-year-old son, Aiden, had been brought to safety by locals.
On Tuesday, the main street of this affluent Chicago suburb was still blocked by police and remained frozen in the first moments of the shooting.
A stroller, a tricycle, folding chairs: the quantity of objects left pell-mell abandoned around the scene of the tragedy testified to the chaos generated by the gunshots on Monday.
The Dr David Baum, a doctor who participated in the rescue operations at the scene, testified on CNN of the horror of the attack, referring to victims “exploded” or “gutted” by the bullets.
Knives seized
Originally from Highwood, a small town nearby, the shooter was identified thanks to surveillance videos and tracing of the weapon he had purchased legally, said Mr. Cavelli.
He was arrested on Monday.
According to the policeman, the young man had attempted suicide in April 2019 and had been followed by a doctor.
In September 2019, officers intervened at the family home after a report warned that he was “going to kill everyone”.
The police then seized 16 knives, a dagger and a sword. He had not been arrested because no one had filed a complaint, underlined Mr. Cavelli.
A video posted eight months ago shows a young man in a bedroom and classroom with posters of a shooter and people being shot. “I just need to do it,” the comment read. ” It’s my destiny. Everything led me to this. Nothing can stop me, not even myself. »
Images archived on the suspect’s Twitter account show him in particular with a flag of support for former Republican President Donald Trump on his back.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering told NBC that she knew the young man when he was a boy in the Boy Scouts.
“Sadness”
“This is where you have to reflect and wonder what happened: how did someone become so angry, so full of hatred to attack innocent people who are spending a day with their families ? “, did she say.
The city councilor spoke of “the incredible sadness and shock” that hit the city. “It should never have happened in our small town where everyone knows someone who was directly affected” by the tragedy.
Paul Crimo, the suspect’s uncle, said Tuesday on CNN that he saw “no signs that would explain what he did”.
The country is still reeling from a series of shootings, one of which, perpetrated by an 18-year-old young man at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killed 21 people, including 19 children, on May 24.
President Joe Biden ordered flags on public buildings to be lowered to half-mast on Tuesday. He recently achieved relative political success by having Congress pass a law aimed at better regulating the sale of arms, of which nearly 400 million are in circulation in the United States.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, which includes suicides in its data, more than 22,400 people have been killed by firearms since the start of the year.