But the suspect faces “many more charges” in addition to the seven first-degree murder charges, Eric Rinehart, state’s attorney for Lake County, said in a news conference, suggesting other potential charges include attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.įederal charges are also a possibility, FBI Director Christopher Wray said. That individual called 911, and then North Chicago police conducted a traffic stop and took him into custody.Ĭrimo faces a sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted, Assistant State’s Attorney Ben Dillon said in Wednesday’s hearing. The suspect took his mother’s vehicle, and a member of the community saw him, Covelli said. The suspect was taken into custody soon after police publicly identified him Monday as a “person of interest,” whom the FBI said was “being sought for his alleged involvement in the shooting of multiple individuals” at Highland Park’s Independence Day parade. Law enforcement has yet to establish a motive, and Covelli declined to address a potential motive again Wednesday, saying only that Crimo “had some type of affinity towards the number four and seven and inverse was 7/4,” the date of July Fourth.Ĭovelli previously said there has been no information to suggest the attack was “racially motivated, motivated by religion or any other protected status.” There is no indication anyone else was involved, Covelli said. The suspect dressed in women’s clothing to help conceal his identity, Covelli said, blended in with the crowds as they fled the area, and went to his mother’s house. Investigators believe the suspect planned the attack for weeks, Chris Covelli, spokesperson for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said at one of several news conferences Tuesday. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 28. We need to come together to say enough is enough.Highland Park shooting victims Nicolas Toledo, Irina and Kevin McCarthy, Eduardo Uvaldo, Katherine Goldstein, Stephen Straus and Jacki Sundheim.Ī former preschool teacher and a beloved grandfather are among the victims of a deadly July Fourth parade shootingĪ judge on Wednesday ordered him held without bond in a virtual hearing where a Lake County assistant state’s attorney alleged Crimo confessed to firing on the crowd in a voluntary statement to law enforcement. On June 24, Congress passed legislation designed to make it harder for dangerous people to obtain firearms. Do we now need security guards on every roof? There aren’t enough people to provide security at every site in the nation. Gun rights groups and their apologists in Congress also argue in favor of more armed security instead of fewer guns. They ran to find the source of the bullets. But police were on site at the parade when the shooting started. Gun rights groups like to say the answer to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. The Highland Park tragedy could hardly better illustrate the folly of unfettered access to guns. Highland Park, the former home of Michael Jordan, was about as safe as a community could be. As long as we allow guns to proliferate and permit so many guns to fall into the hands of individuals who are legally banned from possessing firearms, no place is safe.
People who say they never thought gun violence could “happen here” should wake up. There is never a break from gun violence in America. There have been 309 mass shootings in America just so far this year. In Chicago, 57 people were shot, nine of them fatally in Fourth of July weekend violence from Friday evening to Monday morning. This is a nation that already has been shattered by Uvalde, Texas Sandy Hook, Connecticut Buffalo, New York Orlando, Florida Blacksburg, Virginia Sutherland Springs, Texas El Paso, Texas Las Vegas, Nevada Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida Columbine, Colorado, and others too numerous to mention.
We have to ask ourselves: What is the future of “soft targets” such as parades, which can’t be secured by metal detectors? Will people who emerged from the seclusion of COVID-19 be forced to isolate themselves once more? Who will feel safe in the future enjoying the innocent joy of attending a parade? We have to ask ourselves: What truly is freedom? Access to an unlimited number of firearms with too few rules governing who can carry them? Or the freedom to go to a parade, to church, to school, to a theater, to a concert, to a grocery or just walk down the street without fear?
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