Some bystanders initially thought the sound of gunfire that pierced the sunny parade just after 10 a.m. CT along the town’s Central Avenue, about 25 miles north of Chicago, was fireworks, until hundreds of attendees started to flee in terror — abandoning strollers, chairs and American-flag paraphernalia on the streets.
“It looked like a battle zone, and it’s disgusting. It’s really disgusting,” Zoe Pawelczak, who attended the Independence Day parade with her father, recalled Monday.
The carnage punctuates an already bloody American spring and summer — during the past 186 days, more than 300 mass shootings have happened in the US, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit tracking such incidents.
“There are no words for the kind of evil that shows up at a public celebration of freedom, hides on a roof and shoots innocent people with an assault rifle,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “It is devastating that a celebration of America was ripped apart by our uniquely American plague.”
Police captured the suspect near Lake Forest, Illinois, following an intense manhunt across the Chicagoland area. He was taken into custody after leading officers on a brief car chase before being stopped.
Firearm evidence was found on the rooftop of a business near the shooting, police Commander Chris O’Neill said on Monday. The gunman used a ladder attached to the wall of the building from an alley to access the roof, said Christopher Covelli, spokesperson for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force.
Police said they are investigating who bought the firearm and its origins.
Among the six people killed, five adults died at the scene and one in hospital, according to Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek. The age of the sixth victim is not yet clear.
A total of 26 patients were received at Highland Park Hospital, said Dr. Brigham Temple, medical director of the NorthShore University Health System. The injured ranged in age from 8 to 85 — four or five patients were children, Temple said.
He said 19 of the 25 gunshot victims were treated and have been discharged. There were gunshot wounds to extremities as well as more central parts of bodies, he added.
‘Much more work to do’
Last year was the worst year on record since the Gun Violence Archive began tracking mass shootings in 2014. There were a total of 692 mass shootings in the US in 2021, the non-profit says.
Biden held a brief moment of silence at the White House on Monday evening during a July Fourth picnic, noting that he’d spoken to Gov. Pritzker and Highland Park’s mayor.
US Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, also said during a visit to Highland Park late Monday that more needed to be done on gun legislation. “There is no reason for a person to own a military assault weapon. It has no value for hunting, or sports or even self-defense,” he said. “It is a killing machine.”
What we know about the suspect
Law enforcement officials “processed a significant amount of digital evidence,” which helped investigators identify Crimo as the suspect, said Covelli, the county crime task force spokesperson.
“This individual is believed to have been responsible for what happened and the investigation will continue. Charges have not been approved yet at this time — and we are a long way from that,” he said.
Crimo, who calls himself “Awake the Rapper,” posted online music videos on several major streaming outlets and on a personal website, with some featuring animated scenes of gun violence.
In one video titled “Are you Awake,” a cartoon animation of a stick-figure shooter — resembling Crimo’s appearance — is seen in tactical gear carrying out an attack with a rifle. Crimo is seen narrating, “I need to just do it. It is my destiny.”
The suspect’s uncle, Paul A. Crimo, told CNN he had spoken at length to law enforcement on Monday and described his nephew as a “lonely, quiet person.”
He said he does not know of any political views held by his nephew, though he described him as active on YouTube.
“I’m so heartbroken for all the families who lost their lives,” Paul Crimo said.
The gun used in the shooting is believed to have been legally purchased, Rotering told CNN on Tuesday morning.
“That being said … if you can have a weekly mass shooting with a legally purchased gun, then I think we need to talk about why those laws aren’t protecting the very people that they’re supposed to be protecting,” Rotering said. “Let’s be honest, we need to make it more difficult for people to create carnage.”
Rotering knew the suspect, having been leader of his Cub Scout pack when he was a boy. “He was a Cub Scout in my … pack. So, many years ago, he was just a … quiet little boy that I knew,” Rotering said.
“I don’t know what got him to this point, but let’s ask that question of so many people,” she said.
Stories of terror
Miles Zaremski said he heard what he believed to be about 20 to 30 gunshots, in two consecutive spurts of gunfire, at about 10:20 a.m. CT, shortly after the start of the parade. He told CNN he saw a number of people bloodied and on the ground and described the scene as chaotic.
Zoe Pawelczak, who attended the Independence Day parade with her father, said parade-goers initially thought the array of pops were fireworks given the occasion.
“And I was like, something’s wrong. I grabbed my dad and started running. All of a sudden everyone behind us started running,” she said. “I looked back probably 20 feet away from me. I saw a girl shot and killed.”
Paul Toback was watching the parade with his girlfriend and two sons, the oldest of whom has special needs and uses a wheelchair. They turned and ran after they heard the gunfire and saw a crowd running toward them.
The wheelchair collapsed and the older son fell in the rush to flee — so they abandoned the chair and the younger son picked him up, Toback said.
“We ran for our lives,” said Toback, who retrieved the wheelchair only on Tuesday morning, among the numerous other belongings — including beach chairs, towels and strollers — still littering the area for blocks.
Jeff Leon and his wife were about to watch their 14-year-old twin boys march in the parade with the high school football team when gunshots broke out.
“We were going to try to get them,” Leon said. They then saw a man “who had an obvious extremely deep bullet graze wound along the right side of his head above the temple.” Leon said he heard maybe 20 or 30 pops before looking to his right and seeing police movement and people falling.
Steve Tilken told CNN he sheltered in a store basement with his wife, her two grandchildren and dozens of others as police scoured the area for the gunman.
“We were just sitting ducks right there and one bullet could pass through all of our bodies,” he said.
CNN’s Joe Sutton, Shawn Nottingham, Chuck Johnston, Curt Devine, Eric Levenson, Claudia Dominguez, Melissa Alonso, Brynn Gingras, Steve Almasy, Jeff Winter, Yahya Abou-Ghazala, David Williams, Jason Hanna and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.
