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PA

Fourth of July parade suspected gunman planned the attack for weeks, US police say

Emergency officials said around two dozen people, including children, were treated for gunshot injuries.

POLICE HAVE SAID the suspected gunman behind yesterday’s mass shooting at a US Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb planned the attack for weeks.

A suspect has been arrested by police. 

Robert Crimo (22) was identified as a “person of interest” and became the target of a massive manhunt across the town of Highland Park in Illinois, where a rooftop gunman with a high-powered rifle turned a family-focused Fourth of July parade celebration into a scene of death and trauma.

Police said the suspect legally bought two high-powered rifles and three other weapons despite authorities being called to his home twice since 2019 after he threatened suicide and violence.

Investigators have not yet determined a motive for the attack.

Firing into the crowd, the shooter caused scenes of total chaos as panicked onlookers ran for their lives, leaving some in critical condition.

After a brief car chase, Crimo was taken into custody “without incident”, Highland Park police chief Lou Jogmen told reporters.

Earlier, police had warned that he was armed and “very dangerous“.

Crimo bills himself as a musician, and goes by the online moniker ‘Awake the Rapper’.

The shooting is part of a wave of gun violence plaguing the United States, where approximately 40,000 deaths a year are caused by firearms, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

And it cast a pall over America’s Independence Day, in which towns and cities across the country hold similar parades and people — many dressed in variations on the US flag — hold barbecues, attend sports events and gather for firework displays.

In another Fourth of July shooting, two police officers were wounded when they came under fire during a fireworks display in Philadelphia, major US news outlets reported.

CBS News aired video taken from a high-rise building showing crowds fleeing in panic as fireworks burst in the sky. The circumstances of that shooting were not immediately known and police were not reachable Monday night.

In Highland Park, Emily Prazak, who marched in the parade, described the mayhem.

“We were getting ready to march down the street and then all the sudden waves of these people started running after, like running towards us. And right before that happened, we heard the pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and I thought it was fireworks,” Prazak told AFP.

She added: “This is the day that we celebrate our country. This is also a day that our freedom got stolen from us — because many of us residents here, in this building even, we’re all locked down.”

Spectators ‘targeted’ 

Don Johnson, who attended the parade, said he initially thought the gunshots were a car backfiring.

“And finally, I heard the screams from a block down and people running and carrying their kids and everything, and we ran into the gas station, and we were in there for three hours,” he told AFP.

“I’ve seen scenes like this over and over again on the TV and in different communities, and didn’t think it was going to happen here ever,” he said.

Police officials said the shooting began at 10.14am local time, when the parade was approximately three-quarters of the way through.

“It sounds like spectators were targeted… So, very random, very intentional and very sad,” said Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli.

Five of the six people killed, all adults, died at the scene. The sixth was taken to the hospital but succumbed to wounds there.

Dr Brigham Temple of Highland Park Hospital, where most of the victims were taken, said it had received 25 people with gunshot wounds aged eight to 85.

“Four or five” children were among them, he said, and that 16 people were later discharged.

Police said the shooter used a “high-powered rifle”, and “firearm evidence” had been located on the rooftop of a nearby business.

“All indications is he was discreet, he was very difficult to see,” Covelli said.

US media reported that Crimo’s online postings included violent content that alluded to guns and shootings. His YouTube and other social media accounts were not viewable Monday night.

One YouTube video posted eight months ago features images of a young man in a bedroom and a classroom along with cartoons of a gunman and people being shot, the Chicago Tribune reported.

A voice-over says: “I need to just do it.”

It adds: “It is my destiny. Everything has led up to this. Nothing can stop me, not even myself,” the newspaper said.

309 mass shootings so far

US President Joe Biden voiced his shock and vowed to keep fighting “the epidemic of gun violence” sweeping the country.

“I’m not going to give up,” he said.

Last week, Biden signed the first significant federal bill on gun safety in decades, just days after the Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a fundamental right to carry a handgun in public.

The deeply divisive debate over gun control was reignited by two massacres in May that saw 10 Black supermarket shoppers gunned down in upstate New York and 21 people, mostly young children, slain at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 309 mass shootings carried out in the US so far in 2022 – including at least three others on 4 July, though without any fatalities.

© AFP 2022 

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    Mute Crocodylus Pontifex
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    Jul 5th 2022, 7:23 AM

    Robert Crimo, known to be armed with a high powered rifle was arrested without incident after 6 people killed.
    Jayland Walker, who was unarmed, was shot 60 times by police during a routine traffic stop last week.
    One wonders what determines the different tactics by US police.

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    Mute DJ François
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    Jul 5th 2022, 7:40 AM

    @Crocodylus Pontifex: also seen at multiple Trump rallies, father a 2nd amendment qanon type. No mention of the area being heavily Jewish either.
    Pattern of far right maga terrorism emerging in the US.

    147
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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    Jul 5th 2022, 8:23 AM

    @Crocodylus Pontifex: he shot out of the car and then ran but left the gun in the car. Would you take the chance? And to be fair they tried to taze him. Not justifying 60 shots but you make it out like he did nothing wrong. If you shoot at arm cops and run you’re going to get shot

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    Mute Felicity Hensen
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    Jul 5th 2022, 9:06 AM

    @Damien Leahy: Really? That’s the only way this, or other similar situations, can be handled? The police are judges, juries, and executioners?

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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    Jul 5th 2022, 9:09 AM

    @Felicity Hensen: Read my comment again. What would you have done differently?

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    Mute Colleen
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    Jul 5th 2022, 9:10 AM

    @Felicity Hensen: Well, hopefully not. We only hear about the ones that end up with someone dead but these arrests must take place hundreds of times a day across the USA without incident.

    52
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    Mute David Dineen
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    Jul 5th 2022, 9:29 AM

    @Damien Leahy: really? You are choosing to belive the cops who shot 126 bullets blaming the victim rather than wait for facts to come out, it isnt illegal to have a gun in america..

    28
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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    Jul 5th 2022, 9:41 AM

    @David Dineen: is it illegal to shoot at police? I’ve already I’m not trying to justify the amount of forced used but can honestly say if you were a cop after being shot at you wouldn’t shoot back? Especially after tazing didn’t work

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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 5th 2022, 5:30 PM

    @Damien Leahy: that’s not the legal rules of engagement though. Police have to see a gun and feel threatened to shoot. A suspect running away isn’t legal justification to shoot.

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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 5th 2022, 5:32 PM

    @Damien Leahy: he wasn’t seen to be holding a gun when he was shot. If they had killed him while he was shooting or even still holding the gun then it’s a justifiable shooting. If he is unarmd then it’s not justifiable, no matter what happened before. That’s the law.

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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    Jul 5th 2022, 7:50 PM

    @Gearóid MacEachaidh: he ran after already using a firearm stopped suddenly and looked to be reaching around the waist area. After already having fired out of the car how in the name of God were the cops supposed to know? Its real simple 1 don’t drive away from a traffic stop 2 don’t then fire a weapon out of the car 3 don’t flee on foot after the car is stopped and 4 don’t man any sudden movements and you won’t be shot. I’d say they gave him plenty warning.

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    Mute Billybutcher
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    Jul 5th 2022, 8:09 PM

    @Crocodylus Pontifex: think we all know the answer sadly

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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 5th 2022, 9:54 PM

    @Damien Leahy: I didn’t see him reaching around his waist area. All of the other points you made are not legal justification to shoot under rules of engagement in the USA. You can not be shot for running away from police

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    Mute Tony Doyle
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    Jul 5th 2022, 10:00 PM

    @Damien Leahy: I would guess 60 bullets is overkill but that’s just me

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    Mute Tony Doyle
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    Jul 5th 2022, 10:01 PM

    @Damien Leahy: everything

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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    Jul 6th 2022, 6:54 AM

    @Tony Doyle: how many time do I have to say I’m not trying to justify the amount of force used? Simple facts are he ran and shot at police. Don’t run and shoot at police no problem. The people here trying to justify him shooting at police for a traffic stop and then wonder why the police are trigger happy is unbelievable they have to face this kind of sh#te on a daily basis.

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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    Jul 6th 2022, 6:57 AM

    @Gearóid MacEachaidh: I would say a car chase and shooting at police are. Ya know endangering the public and all that but whatever he must have been the angel ye are all making him out to be

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    Mute JustBEERbarry
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    Jul 5th 2022, 7:01 AM

    Another day, another shooting.

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    Mute Stanley Marsh
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    Jul 5th 2022, 1:24 PM

    @JustBEERbarry: The picture I had in my head of a deranged, weirdo gunman didn’t come close to the reality when I saw his actual photo.

    31
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    Mute Johnathan Smith
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    Jul 6th 2022, 9:17 AM

    @Conor: except the pictures of him draped in a trump flag and his father being a Q GOP mayor candidate recently….oops

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    Mute Bramley Hawthorne
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    Jul 5th 2022, 7:19 AM

    Disintegration of the US is now inevitable. It’s time for Europe to declare independence.

    54
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    Mute Teresa O'Halloran
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    Jul 5th 2022, 8:45 AM

    There is definitely a serious mental health problem in America that needs to be addressed, along with gun control.

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    Mute Dean
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    Jul 5th 2022, 6:15 PM

    Except it is not a mental health issue.

    White supremacy tops the list as to what drives terrorism. Second is religion (which is mass psychosis and therefore a mass mental health problem). Thirdly is prejudiced hatred (of a race, sexuality, class, etc). Stats from CSIS.

    It is an entire cult, it’s not individual mental health.

    35
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    Mute Shawn Rahoon
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    Jul 6th 2022, 12:53 PM

    @Fiona O’ Dwyer: Majority of gun deaths in US are suicide, so how is it not a mental issue?I

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Jul 6th 2022, 4:45 PM

    @Shawn Rahoon: This man by all accounts was once saved from suicide by police. How is it that these murderous lads can afford weapons and can’t afford treatment?

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    Mute A$AP Ragnick
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    Jul 6th 2022, 4:51 PM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald: guns are probably cheaper, if it’s anything like their medical care, psychiatric care probably costs thousands upon thousands.

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    Mute Shawn Rahoon
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    Jul 7th 2022, 2:20 PM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald: “This man” is only one man of those who commit suicide by gun. As for costs of health insurance in US, There are elderly couples working in the likes of Public which is similar to Tesco but 3 times more expensive just to pay for their health alone. Ask anybody who lives in US about the cost of health insurance.

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    Mute Rathminder
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    Jul 5th 2022, 8:32 AM

    This shooting was in an affluent area. Perhaps we’ll see a shift when more affluent voter have mass shootings in their areas. When the poor and minorities shoot each other their seems to be less concern.

    51
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Jul 5th 2022, 9:57 AM

    That was the appalling part for me – the attitude that while it’s entirely legal to hoard and carry guns in peacetime all over the US, people had the neck to complain that it’s not supposed to happen in their area. As though guns are somehow priced out of their range while other communities are maimed and killed by these madmen.

    31
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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 5th 2022, 5:38 PM

    @Rathminder: the vast majority of school shootings have happened in middle to upper middle class areas almost always with white shooters. All of the students and teachers killed in Sandyhook were white in a very affluent area. Florida a couple of years ago had a Hispanic shooter but white fatalities. Comumbine had one black student killed. Americans are equal opportunity when it comes to the massacre of their people.

    21
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    Mute Seamus Quaide
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    Jul 5th 2022, 8:20 AM

    America is turning on itself…

    34
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    Mute Fab John
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    Jul 5th 2022, 1:04 PM

    They need more guns to protect people…
    My word!
    Growing up I used to look to America as the place to be, to aspire to go etc.
    Now you’d really wonder!

    29
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    Mute Billybutcher
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    Jul 5th 2022, 8:11 PM

    @Fab John: when grow up the 50s. Place has being going to shite since Reagonomics

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    Mute Seán Ó Briain
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    Jul 5th 2022, 5:58 PM

    So a guy with clear mental issues who made rap videos about opening fire on the public was able to buy a guy, and Republicans still want to make it easier to access guns. Murica.

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    Mute bli
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    Jul 5th 2022, 7:29 AM

    Colour

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    Mute Tricia G ☘️
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    Jul 5th 2022, 8:21 AM

    @bli: Do you not have Google?

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    Mute Paul Jude Redmond
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    Jul 5th 2022, 6:05 PM

    America is within a few years of complete anarchy

    19
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