JAKARTA - Police announced they had arrested a suspect in Monday's shooting that killed six people and injured more than 36, when a man with a high-powered rifle opened fire from a rooftop at the Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.
Police confirmed that they arrested Robert E. Crimo III, 22, who is from the area. Charges will be filed, Highland Park Police said.
Police were seen surrounding a car and then Crimo got out of the vehicle with his hands raised, according to a video by the Chicago affiliate of ABC News. Crimo lay on the ground before the police arrested him.
The shooting caused the toddler to abandon the tricycle and the parents to run for safety with their children, turning a display of civic patriotism into a scene of frantic chaos.
"It sounded like fireworks going off," said retired doctor Richard Kaufman, who was standing across the street from where the gunman opened fire, adding that he heard about 200 gunshots.
"It was chaos. A stampede. Babies were flying through the air. People were diving for cover. People covered in blood were tripping over each other," he said.
However, the police do not yet know the motive for the shooting.
More than 36 people were injured, mostly from gunfire, said Jim Anthony, spokesman for the NorthShore University Health System. The 26 victims taken to Highland Park hospital were aged between 8 and 85, said Brigham Temple, an emergency room doctor.
Meanwhile, The New York Times named one of the dead as Nicolas Toledo, 76, who uses a wheelchair and doesn't want to attend the parade, but his disability requires him to be around someone full time and his family doesn't want to. missed the event.
"We were all shocked. We thought it was part of the parade," said grandson Xochil Toledo.
At least one of those killed was a Mexican national, a senior Mexican Foreign Ministry official said on Twitter.
Reported earlier, President Joe Biden said he and his wife Jill were "shocked by the senseless gun violence that has once again brought sorrow to the American community this Independence Day."
Biden said he had "stepped up federal law enforcement to assist in the urgent search for the shooter."
In his statement, Biden referred to the bipartisan gun reform law he signed recently but said more needed to be done and added: "I will not give up fighting the gun violence epidemic."
Earlier, the Lake County Sheriff's Office posted a wanted poster online for Crimo, showing a bearded, skinny man with face and neck tattoos. It is said he weighs 120 pounds (54 kg) and is 5 feet 11 inches (1 meter 80 cm) tall.
Crimo appears to have published several self-made rap songs using the artist's stage name "Awake The Rapper."
To note, in the wake of the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings, Congress last month passed the first major federal gun reform in three decades, providing federal funding to states administering "red flag" laws intended to remove guns from people deemed to be guns. dangerous.
It does not prohibit the sale of assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines, but does take some steps at background checks by allowing access to information about significant crimes committed by juveniles.
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