Not less than 6 killed in taking pictures at Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois; individual of curiosity in custody

Six folks have been killed when a gunman opened hearth at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, and greater than two dozen folks have been taken to space hospitals with accidents, officers stated. A few of the victims, together with not less than one little one, have been in important situation after they have been transported from the scene, Highland Park Hearth Chief Joe Schrage informed reporters.

Robert “Bobby” Crimo III, who had been recognized as an individual of curiosity, was arrested round 6:30 p.m. native time, almost 9 hours after the taking pictures. Officers stated his automobile was noticed and he was stopped after a quick pursuit. He’s being taken to the Highland Park Police Division because the investigation continues.

“This particular person is believed to have been answerable for what occurred,” Lake County Main Crime Job Power spokesman Chris Covelli stated Monday evening. 

Police and witnesses earlier within the day stated it appeared the gunman was taking pictures on the crowd from the roof of a enterprise close to the parade route. 

Investigators stated a firearm had been recovered from the scene. Covelli described the weapon as “a high-powered rifle.”

Hours after the taking pictures, closely armed legislation enforcement authorities have been seen at what’s believed to be Crimo’s household house in Highwood, simply north of Highland Park, CBS Chicago studies. Neighbors informed CBS Chicago that the individual of curiosity lives on the house along with his father and uncle.

FBI brokers had been going out and in of the home all through the night.

Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek informed reporters 5 adults died on the scene. The sixth sufferer died at a hospital, Banek stated, including that she did not have particulars about that individual.

Dr. Brigham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness at Highland Park Hospital, stated {that a} whole of 26 folks have been dropped at the medical facility, 25 of whom had suffered gunshot wounds. Six sufferers have been taken to Evanston Hospital, 4 have been taken to Glenbrook Hospital, and a number of other others have been taken to hospitals outdoors of the Northshore College Medical System community.

Of the sufferers initially taken to Highland Park Hospital, two have been transferred to Evanston Hospital: one to get additional neurosurgical care and one other to be handled on the pediatric unit there. One other affected person was transferred to Skokie Hospital and a fourth affected person was transferred to Homer Kids’s Hospital following emergency surgical procedure. 

As of Monday night, 19 sufferers at Highland Park Hospital had been handled and discharged, Temple stated; solely two sufferers remained at Highland Park Hospital and each have been in steady situation.

The sufferers’ ages ranged from 8 to 85 years outdated, Temple stated, and he estimated that 4 or 5 of the sufferers have been kids.

Over 100 legislation enforcement officers from a number of companies, together with the FBI, Illinois State Police and Lake County Sheriff’s Office, responded to the taking pictures within the suburb north of Chicago at round 10:14 a.m.

Covelli stated the gunman stopped firing as officers approached the constructing after which managed to elude authorities. 

“All indications is he was discreet and he was very tough to see,” Covelli stated. 

“It seems like spectators have been focused … very random, very intentional and a really unhappy day,” Covelli stated.

Investigators are combing by surveillance cameras searching for info on the taking pictures, CBS Information senior investigative producer Pat Milton studies. They’re additionally going over cellphone video of bystanders on the parade.

Police and ambulances from a number of jurisdictions swarmed the realm within the aftermath of the taking pictures. Video from the scene confirmed folks being positioned into ambulances. 

CBS Chicago digital producer Elyssa Kaufman, who was watching the parade along with her household, heard the sound of gunshots.

“Everybody was was working, hiding and screaming,” Kaufman stated. “It was extraordinarily terrifying. It was very scary. We’re very lucky, we bought out in a short time.”

Witnesses informed CBS Chicago there was confusion within the preliminary aftermath of the taking pictures over whether or not the loud bangs have been a part of the Independence Day festivities. 

“I keep in mind seeing folks, like, you realize, working and ducking and, you realize, simply screaming,” a girl informed CBS Chicago. “I ran with my daughter, and I bumped into, like, a bit of retailer, however I used to be scared as a result of I did not know in the event that they have been coming … or in the event that they have been, you realize, like, within the constructing.”

A video posted to Twitter by Chicago Solar-Occasions columnist Lynn Candy, who was on the parade, confirmed a band taking part in on a truck within the parade as a crowd of individuals handed the truck, working the opposite manner.

Candy informed CBS Information the taking pictures occurred close to the reviewing stand for the parade.

“I noticed issues that individuals should not see,” she stated. “I noticed our bodies. I noticed wounded folks. I noticed swimming pools of blood.”

She estimated a whole bunch of individuals have been lined up alongside the parade route, in some locations two or three folks deep. She stated it was clear folks left in a rush.

“You noticed child carriages; they’re nonetheless on the market on the scene … there are water bottles,” she stated. “It is only a second frozen in time the place folks did not care about any belongings as a result of they needed to get out of there.”

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering stated the remainder of the competition has been canceled, and a number of other close by communities additionally canceled their parades.

“On a day that we got here collectively to rejoice neighborhood and freedom, we’re as an alternative mourning the loss, the tragic lack of life and battling the phobia that was introduced upon us,” Rotering stated at a information convention after the taking pictures.

President Biden stated in a press release that he and first woman Jill Biden “are shocked by the mindless gun violence that has but once more introduced grief to an American neighborhood on this Independence Day.  As all the time, we’re grateful for the primary responders and legislation enforcement on the scene. I’ve spoken to Governor Pritzker and Mayor Rotering, and have supplied the total help of the Federal authorities to their communities.”

Talking on the South Garden on the White Home, Biden later remarked, “You all heard what occurred immediately. With every day, we’re reminded there’s nothing assured about our democracy. Nothing assured about our lifestyle. We now have to combat for it, defend it, and earn it by voting.”

Governor JB Pritzker urged all Illinoisans to hope for the victims, their households, and the primary responders. “However grief won’t carry the victims again, and prayers alone won’t put a cease to the phobia of rampant gun violence in our nation. I’ll stand agency with Illinoisans and Individuals: we should — and we’ll — finish this plague of gun violence,” he stated in a statement.

At a Monday night press convention, Pritzker stated, “I need to start immediately by honoring the heroic actions of legislation enforcement who ran towards the gunshots that they heard immediately. Specifically, lives have been saved as a result of the Highland Park Police Division courageously protected and served their neighborhood.”

“There aren’t any phrases for the type of evil that reveals up at a public celebration of freedom, hides on a roof and shoots harmless folks with an assault rifle,” Pritzker stated earlier than calling for extra motion of gun management.

“Mass shootings have grow to be our weekly, sure, weekly American custom,” he stated. “There are going to be individuals who say immediately isn’t the day, that now isn’t the time to speak about weapons. I am telling you there isn’t any higher day and no higher time than proper right here and proper now. … Our founders carried muskets, not assault weapons. And I do not assume a single one among them would have stated that you’ve a constitutional proper to an assault weapon with a excessive capability journal, or that that’s extra necessary than the best of the individuals who attended this parade immediately to reside.”

Talking on the similar press convention, Senator Tammy Duckworth echoed Pritzker’s name for gun management laws, praising the bipartisan gun management invoice signed into legislation final month however saying, “immediately we have now seen that we will not simply cease there.”

“We now have to do away with assault weapons, excessive capability magazines and so many different extra commonsense reforms that extensive majorities of Individuals are crying out for,” she stated.

“I simply listened to the sound of that gunfire from one of many movies that was captured, and let me inform you that the final time I heard a weapon with that capability firing that quickly on a Fourth of July, was Iraq. It was not america of America,” added Duckworth, who was wounded in fight in 2004. “We will, we must always and we’ll do higher.”

Later Monday evening, Senator Dick Durbin additionally thanked legislation enforcement and medical personnel who responded to the taking pictures. 

“As we speak was a day we’ll keep in mind for a very long time. It was one of the best of America with these women and men that I simply described. It was the worst of America, {that a} man took a rifle, a high-velocity rifle, and turned it on harmless folks and ruined lives and ruined many households,” Durbin stated. 

Durbin additionally referred to as for expanded gun management laws, mentioning limits on assault weapons and excessive capability magazines as effectively.

Highland Park, the Park District of Highland Park, Highland Park Excessive Faculty, Township Excessive Faculty District 113 and
North Shore Faculty District 112  stated Monday in a joint assertion that they’re “grieving for the victims and the households of the horrific taking pictures immediately at what ought to have been a contented and joyous celebration.”

The assertion stated that counseling professionals can be made out there Tuesday at Highland Park Excessive Faculty for “college students, employees and neighborhood members.”

Kathryn Watson contributed reporting.