In Illinois, six people were killed and at least two dozen injured when a rooftop gunman armed with a high-powered rifle attacked a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park on Monday morning. Five of the shooting victims died in the street. A sixth died at the hospital. Victims ranged in age from 8 to 85. Eyewitnesses described a scene of terror as parents scrambled to protect their children from the attack. Following an eight-hour manhunt, police arrested Robert E. Crimo III, a 21-year-old resident of Chicago’s northern suburbs. He was an aspiring musician who performed under the name Awake the Rapper. Some of his videos depict mass murder and school shootings. Crimo’s father runs Bob’s Pantry and Deli in Highland Park and ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign against the city’s current mayor. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker responded to the shooting on Monday.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker: “I’m furious because it does not have to be this way. And yet we as a nation, well, we continue to allow this to happen. While we celebrate the Fourth of July just once a year, mass shootings have become our weekly — yes, weekly — American tradition.”
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have now been 315 mass shootings in the United States so far this year.