A gunman opened fire on a holiday parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, on Monday morning, killing six people and injuring dozens more. What had started as a cherished July 4th tradition ended in tragedy.
According to Nancy Rotering, mayor of Highland Park, Robert E. Crimo III is thought to be the shooter. Charges are anticipated soon, she said.
Police first identified Crimo — who is 21 according to the Highland Park Police Department — as a person of interest on Monday. After a long manhunt, he was apprehended later that night when a police officer pulled him over for a traffic stop.
Authorities said that the suspect reached the roof of a nearby business via an unsecured ladder that was attached to the structure, from which he fired shots at the gathering with a high-powered weapon.
In what Rotering described as a violation of municipal law, the suspect is not a resident of Highland Park and obtained the pistol legally.
This is due to the fact that Highland Park was among the first communities to approve a law banning weapons like semi-automatic rifles and magazines with a big capacity in 2013. But as Rotering pointed out, there are different regulations in various Illinois communities as well as in nearby states like Wisconsin and Indiana. She is urging states to work together more frequently in order to save such tragedies from happening in more hometowns.
