A seventh victim died at a hospital outside Lake County, Banek said. A total of 45 people were killed or injured during the shooting, said Christopher Covelli, a spokesman for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force. The focus of the investigation for the past 36 hours has been the shooter, but now it has shifted to “the victims and those left behind,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said during the news conference. The release of the victims’ names comes after investigators revealed the suspected gunman, Robert E. Crimo III, 21, may have been planning the attack “for several weeks” and wore women’s clothing during the shooting to conceal his identity and the tattoos on his face. to help him leave with the crowd leaving after the shooting, Coveli said. “He immediately stayed with everyone else as they ran, almost as if (he) was also an innocent bystander,” Covelli said late Tuesday morning at a news conference outside Highland Park police headquarters. Covelli also revealed Tuesday that Crimo had two previous run-ins with law enforcement. In April 2019, a person contacted authorities about Crimo’s attempted suicide. Authorities spoke with Crimo and his parents, and the matter was addressed by mental health professionals, Covelli said. Then, in September 2019, a family member reported that Crimo threatened to “kill everyone” and had a collection of knives, Covelli said. The police removed 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from their residence. Highland Park police reported the incident to the Illinois State Police. “At that time there was no probable cause to make an arrest. There were no complaints signed by any of the victims,” Covelli said. Investigators are still trying to determine a motive for Monday’s shooting, Coveli said. Crimo has been in police custody since he was arrested Monday night, although no charges have been announced. Crimo, authorities believe, used a high-powered rifle “similar to an AR-15” to fire more than 70 rounds into a marching crowd from the roof of a business, which was accessed by a firehouse ladder, Covelli said . Gunshots pierced the sun-drenched parade shortly after 10am. CT along the city’s Main Avenue, about 25 miles north of Chicago, scattering hundreds of bystanders in terror — abandoning carts, chairs and American flag paraphernalia in the streets. Witnesses described watching in horror as the wounded fell around them. Live Updates: Suspect in custody The carnage caps an already bloody American spring and summer — in the past 186 days, more than 300 mass shootings have occurred in the US, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks such incidents. “There are no words for the kind of evil that shows up at a public celebration of freedom, hides on a rooftop and shoots innocent people with a gun,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Monday. “It is devastating that an American holiday has been torn apart by our only American plague.” Details about what led investigators to believe the shooting had been planned for weeks were not immediately available. After the shooting, Crimo went to his mother’s house in the area and then took off in his mother’s car, Covelli said. After police determined Crimo was a person of interest in the investigation and released his information and the car they believed he was in, someone saw the vehicle on US 41 and called 911, Covelli said. A North Chicago police officer then saw the vehicle, waited for backup, stopped the car Monday night near Lake Forest, Illinois, and arrested Crimo, authorities said.
The suspect bought the guns legally in the Chicagoland area, police say
In addition to the rifle used in the shooting, which authorities found abandoned near the shooting scene, officers also found a rifle inside the vehicle, Covelli said. Crimo, a resident of Highwood, near Highland Park, had purchased both guns legally in the Chicagoland area, Covelli said, without elaborating. Other firearms were found at Crimo’s Highwood residence, Covelli said. Investigators have no information that the shooting was motivated by race, religion or any other protected status, Coveli said. Among the seven people killed, five adults died at the scene and one at the hospital, said Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek. It is not yet clear how old the sixth and seventh victims were. One of those killed was Jacki Sundheim, 63, according to a nearby synagogue where she was a colleague and staff member. Another was Nicolas Toledo, 78, who was visiting family in Highland Park from Mexico, an official from Morelos state told CNN. Thirty-nine patients related to the shooting — including the person who died at a hospital — were treated at three NorthShore University HealthSystem hospitals, the system said Tuesday. The injured ranged in age from 8 to 85 — four or five patients were children, Dr. Brigham Temple, the system’s medical director, said Monday. Nine were still in hospitals Tuesday, ranging in age from 14 to 70, according to system spokesman Jim Anthony. Eight of the nine suffered gunshot wounds, Anthony said. One was in critical condition Tuesday, Anthony said.
“We’re all a little upset”
As of Tuesday morning, a Highland Park street was still littered Tuesday with the belongings of revelers hastily abandoned, and residents are struggling to come to terms with what happened. Three blocks of Central Avenue in downtown Highland Park remained blocked off by police tape. FBI agents walked a line to comb the road for more evidence and picked up scattered lawn chairs and other items left behind on the flight to safety. A man who escaped the carnage unharmed with his sons returned Tuesday to find the wheelchair of his older son, who has special needs. They had abandoned the wheelchair Monday — and the younger brother carried his brother — after the older fell out as they hurried away from the shooting. “We’re all a little shaken up. It’s hard to believe that this happened, just (yesterday). And I think we’re all a little shaken and upset, (is) probably the best way to describe it,” the father, Paul Toback, he told CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday. Both inside and outside the exclusion zone, parade visitors’ belongings remained strewn on the ground. Among them: a baby stroller, an ant-infested Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, a half-eaten cup of noodles, a toy truck, sunscreen, water bottles, dog treats and a Sonic the Hedgehog stuffed toy.
“A lot more work to do”
Last year was the worst year on record since the Gun Violence Archive began tracking mass shootings in 2014. There were a total of 692 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2021, the nonprofit says. The Highland Park attack comes on the heels of several recent mass shootings that have shocked the nation, including an 18-year-old’s racist attack at a New York supermarket that killed 10 and another 18-year-old’s shooting at a Texas school that left 19 students and two teachers dead. dead. In the wake of those massacres, President Joe Biden signed into law the first major federal gun safety legislation in decades, marking a major bipartisan breakthrough on one of Washington’s most contentious policy issues. Biden held a brief moment of silence at the White House on Monday afternoon during a Fourth of July picnic, noting that he had spoken with Gov. Pritzker and the mayor of Highland Park. “There is much more work to be done, and I am not going to give up on the fight against the epidemic of gun violence,” Biden said in a statement released Monday. In 2013, Highland Park passed a local ban on semi-automatic firearms with the capacity to hold more than 10 rounds, following a series of mass shootings across the country. On Tuesday, Mayor Nancy Rotering said Monday’s shooting showed the need for strict gun laws nationwide. “I think it’s important to know that banning assault weapons … reflects the values of our community,” he said. “Obviously we have a problem in this country if we have weekly mass shootings with these weapons of war, and it’s important for us to talk about how to provide that protection on a border scale, whether statewide (or) nationally.” .
What do we know about the suspect?
Former classmates described Crimo Tuesday as a strange, soft-spoken kid who didn’t participate in class or school activities and showed little interest in engaging with his classmates. Crimo’s few friends tended to be troublemakers who seemed to enjoy the idea of being an outsider, some former classmates said. “They wanted to be the ‘anti’ group, like the rebels,” said Mackenzie, a former high school classmate who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect her privacy. “The aura they presented was contrary, negative and harsh.” Other classmates, who wished to remain anonymous, described Crimo as a skater kid who made DIY skateboard videos on YouTube all the time. Shortly before Crimo left Highland Park High in 2017, he threw “Awake” stickers in the school’s stairwells and bathrooms, his former classmate said. Crimo made music under the name “Awake the Rapper”. On Monday, Covelli said law enforcement officials “processed a significant amount of digital evidence” that helped investigators identify Crimo as a suspect. Crimo has posted online music videos to several major streaming outlets and a personal website, some featuring animated scenes of gun violence. In a video titled “Are you Awake”, a cartoon animation of a stick shooter – similar to Crimo’s appearance – in tactical gear is shown carrying out an attack with a rifle. Crimo is seen narrating, “I have to. It’s my destiny.” The suspect’s uncle, Paul A. Crimo, told CNN he spoke extensively with law enforcement on Monday and described his nephew as a “lonely, quiet person.” He said he didn’t…
