L’suspected perpetrator of the deadly shooting during a July 4 parade near Chicago has been arrested, announced Monday July 4 Chicago Sun-Times, citing a police source. The 22-year-old man “was arrested without incident”, according to this source quoted by the Chicago newspaper, while hundreds of police were looking Monday evening for this young man who, armed with a powerful rifle, had fired into a crowd gathered near Chicago for a National Day parade, killing at least six and injuring 26.
The tragedy, in a country still reeling from a recent series of deadly shootings, took place around 10:15 a.m. (5:15 p.m. French time) in Highland Park, in the north of the United States. Hundreds of police were deployed in this city of 30,000 inhabitants, located on the shores of Lake Michigan, to find the author of the shootings. Saying he was “shocked”, Democratic President Joe Biden promised in a statement to continue the fight against “the epidemic of gun violence” after this new bloodbath.
The man had posted himself on the roof of a business, sowing panic before fleeing. The police had identified a suspect, Robert known as “Bobby” Crimo, 22 years old and “from the region”. She had released the photo of a diaphanous young man, with an emaciated and tattooed face. The man has several pages on the Internet, where he is presented as a musician from Chicago nicknamed “Awake the Rapper”. “Be very vigilant, this person is on the run,” warned one of his spokespersons, Christopher Covelli. “She is considered armed and very dangerous. »
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“We heard about 50 gunshots, we all thought they were fireworks,” a woman who witnessed the tragedy, who only gave her first name Zoe, commented on CNN. “At one point I saw a girl covered in blood, I had never seen that,” she added, describing a “sea of panic with people falling one after another.”
The suspect “considered armed and dangerous”
The shootings and the stampede caused many victims. “At this time, we know that at least 6 people have died and 24 have been taken to hospital,” city mayor Nancy Rotering said at a press conference. “As we gathered to celebrate our freedom, we must mourn the tragic loss of life and overcome our terror,” she lamented.
A “powerful” rifle was found, but the suspect, “considered armed and dangerous” remains on the run, said the police, who called on the population to stay safe until his arrest. “Firearm-related evidence was found on the roof of a nearby business,” said Christopher Covelli, a county police spokesman, implying that the shooter acted from that point. raised.
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The man “is approximately between 18 and 20 years old, long black hair and a white or blue t-shirt,” local police official Chris O’Neill said, calling on the public to forward all photos and videos of the drama to help identify it. In images of the city broadcast on television channels, we see the police, some of them in military fatigues, driving through empty streets, where the sidewalks are covered with camping chairs and strollers abandoned in panic .