Highland Park, United States:
The 21-year-old man arrested for a deadly mass shooting at a July 4 parade in an affluent Chicago suburb has confessed and admitted he was contemplating a second attack while on the run, officials said Wednesday.
The Illinois state police also answered increasing questions about how Robert Crimo, who had a history of mental health problems and threatening behavior, was able to legally purchase at least five firearms.
After fleeing the shooting scene of the parade in Highland Park, Illinois, Crimo drove to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was thinking of attacking another July 4 event, police said.
“He seriously considered using the firearm he had in his vehicle to commit another shooting,” said police spokesman Christopher Covelli.
Prosecutor Ben Dillon said in a hearing for Crimo that the suspect confessed to carrying out the Highland Park shooting that killed seven people and injured at least three dozen.
The dead included the parents of a two-year-old boy, Aiden McCarthy. A GoFundMe donation page set up for the child had raised more than $2.5 million on Wednesday.
Judge Theodore Potkonjak has ordered that Crimo, who has been charged with seven first-degree murders, be held without bail and appear for a preliminary hearing on July 28.
Crimo, dressed in a black shirt, was attended by video and listened impassively as prosecutors shared details of the shooting.
The judge asked him if he had a lawyer and replied that he did not. The judge appointed a public defender.
Dillon, the prosecutor, said Crimo had “made a voluntary statement confessing his actions”.
Crimo climbed onto a roof overlooking the parade route, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, he said.
“(He) dressed up as a girl and covered his tattoos with makeup” to hide his identity, Dillon added.
Crimo has several signature tattoos on his face, including the word “Awake” above his left eyebrow and the number “47” on his temple.
– History of mental health problems –
Dillon said Crimo fired three magazines of 30 bullets with his rifle into the crowd of the parade before fleeing.
He dropped his gun in an alley, then drove to Madison armed with another gun in his car.
He considered attacking a celebration there, but “indications[are]that he hasn’t made enough plans to launch another attack,” Covelli said.
Crimo returned to the Chicago area and was captured after a short chase about eight hours after the initial attack.
According to police, Crimo has a history of mental health problems and threatening behavior, but his firearms were legally purchased.
Police were called to Crimo’s home twice in 2019: once in April to investigate a suicide attempt and again in September because a relative said he had threatened to “kill everyone in the family”.
Police removed a collection of knives from the home, but made no arrests. The knives were later returned after Crimo’s father said they were his.
In December 2019, Crimo, who was 19 at the time, applied for a firearms license sponsored by his father because he was under 21, police said.
As no formal complaints had been filed in relation to the earlier incidents, there was no reason to refuse the permit, police said.
Crimo then bought several other weapons.
– thwarted attack in Richmond –
Crimo, whose father owns a deli in Highland Park, was an amateur musician who went by the name “Awake the Rapper.”
Authorities are investigating online messages and videos made by Crimo of violent content referring to weapons and shootings.
A YouTube video featured cartoons of a gunman and people being shot.
“I just have to do it,” says a voiceover. “It’s my destiny. Everything has led to this. Nothing can stop me, not even myself.”
The July 4 shooting was the latest in a wave of gun violence that is sweeping the United States, where about 40,000 deaths a year are caused by firearms, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The divisive debate over gun control was fueled again by two massacres in May in which 10 black people were shot in a New York state grocery store, and 19 children and two teachers were murdered at a Texas elementary school.
Police in Richmond, Virginia, said Wednesday they thwarted a possible mass shooting during the city’s Independence Day celebrations after getting a tip from a member of the public.
The call led police to a residence on July 1, where they found two assault rifles, a handgun and 223 ammunition.
Julio Alvardo-Dubon, 52, and Rolman Balacarcel, 38, were arrested on firearms charges.
“It was their intention to carry out a mass shooting during our July 4 celebrations,” said Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)