প্রকাশ: 06/07/2022
The man accused of opening
fire on a July Fourth parade near Chicago was charged on Tuesday with seven
counts of murder, as police revealed they had reported him as posing a
"clear and present danger" after alleged threats to his family in
2019.
Robert E. Crimo III, 21, is suspected of shooting his
victims from a sniper's perch on a rooftop above the parade in the suburb of
Highland Park, Illinois.
He would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without
the possibility of parole if convicted, Illinois state attorney Eric Reinhart
said.
Reinhart said the first-degree murder charges would be
followed by "dozens of more charges" and that he would ask that Crimo
remain held in custody without bail at the suspect's first court appearance,
scheduled for Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear if Crimo had a lawyer.
Crimo had planned the attack for weeks, officials said on
Tuesday.
They said he fired more than 70 rounds at random into the
crowd watching Monday's parade, and that he was dressed in women's clothes to
help conceal his identity and blend in with the panic-stricken crowd as he
fled.
"He blended right in with everybody else as they were
running around, almost as if he was an innocent spectator as well," said
Sergeant Chris Covelli, a spokesperson for the Lake County Sheriff's office,
adding that the suspect has distinctive facial tattoos.
In addition to the seven victims killed by gunfire, more
than three dozen people were treated in hospitals for gunshot wounds and other
injuries.
Missed signals
Covelli said Crimo had two previous encounters with law
enforcement - an April 2019 emergency-911 call reporting that he had attempted
suicide and another in September of that year regarding alleged threats
"to kill everyone" that he had directed at family members.
Police responding to the second incident seized a collection
of 16 knives, a dagger and a sword amassed by Crimo in his home, though no
arrest was made as authorities at the time lacked probable cause to take him
into custody, Covelli said.
"There were no complaints that were signed by any of
the victims," Covelli said.
But a state "red flag" system, designed to allow
police to seek a court order to seize weapons from people who are deemed to
present a danger to themselves or others, appeared to have broken down.
Among those killed in Monday's attack were Nicholas Toledo,
a grandfather from Mexico in his 70s celebrating with his family among the
flag-waving crowds, and Jacki Sundheim, a teacher at a nearby synagogue.
The shooting took place in a neighborhood with a large Jewish
population, but police had no immediate evidence of any anti-Semitic or racist
basis. Investigators were reviewing videos Crimo had posted on social media
containing violent imagery.
The suspect used a high-powered rifle for the attack,
similar to an AR-15, which he dropped at the scene.
He had a similar rifle in his mother's car, which he was
driving when police took him into custody, and owned other guns, all of which
were bought legally in Illinois, officials said.
In all, Crimo had purchased five firearms, including rifles
and pistols.
'Still reeling'
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said the community of
30,000 was in shock.
"This tragedy should have never arrived at our
doorsteps," she told NBC News. "As a small town, everybody knows
somebody who was affected by this directly and, of course, we are all still
reeling."
President Joe Biden ordered US flags to be flown at
half-staff in mourning until sunset on Saturday.
A recent string of deadly mass shootings, including an
attack in which 19 school children and two teachers were killed in Uvalde,
Texas, on May 24, just 10 days after 10 people were slain in a supermarket in a
predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, has renewed debate about
gun safety in America.
The US Supreme Court last month asserted a constitutional
right to carry weapons in public in a ruling that made it easier for pro-gun
groups to overturn modern gun regulations. It has since thrown out a lower
court ruling upholding Maryland's ban on assault weapons.
Congress last month passed its first major federal gun
reform in three decades, providing federal funding to states that administer
"red flag" laws.
The law does not ban sales of assault-style rifles or
high-capacity magazines but does take some steps on background checks by
allowing access to information on significant crimes committed by
juveniles.
Rotering, the mayor of Highland Park, said she knew the
suspect when he was a little boy and a Cub Scout and she was a Cub Scout
leader.
"What happened? How did somebody become this angry,
this hateful?" she said. "Our nation needs to have a conversation
about these weekly events involving the murder of dozens of people with legally
obtained guns."
The suspect's father, Bob Crimo, ran Bob's Pantry and Deli
in Highland Park for at least 18 years, according to a Chicago Tribune business
profile. Bob Crimo closed the deli in 2019 before he unsuccessfully ran against
Rotering for mayor.
Online social media posts written by the suspect or under
his rapper alias, "Awake The Rapper," often depicted violent images
or messages.
One music video posted to YouTube under Awake The Rapper
showed drawings of a stick figure holding a rifle in front of another figure
spread on the ground.
- Reuters
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