Daywatch: Mass shooting that killed six stuns Chicago area and the country

Good morning, Chicago.

On the Fourth of July, the North Shore suburb of Highland Park became the latest American community to be terrorized by a mass shooting.

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On an idyllic summer morning, from a rooftop high above the Highland Park Independence Day parade, a gunman aimed down at the floats and lawn chairs and strollers and opened fire.

In all, six people were killed. Some two dozen others were injured, either by rifle fire or in the stampede away from the scene. The victims ranged in age from 8 to 85.

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They include an elementary school teacher and her husband. A woman who worked and worshipped for decades at a synagogue in Glencoe.

After an hourslong search, authorities arrested a person of interest: 22-year-old Robert “Bobby” Crimo III. North Chicago police spotted him and gave chase; he was ultimately arrested without incident in Lake Forest, according to the Highland Park police chief.

Highland Park is an affluent suburb nearly 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. In 1998, Vanity Fair magazine said the largely white and Jewish community “has the feel of a gated community without the actual gates.” Michael Jordan made his home there for a time when he was with the Bulls.

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A Lake Forest police officer walks down Central Ave on July 4, 2022, after a shooter fired on the northern suburb’s Fourth of July parade. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

The high school marching band’s members sprinted for their lives, still carrying their flutes and saxophones. Bystanders scooped up young children and fled. In all, six people were killed. Some two dozen others were injured, either by rifle fire or in the stampede away from the scene.

Speaking outside a Highland Park fire station late Monday afternoon, Gov. J.B. Pritzker decried the shooting, saying he spoke with President Joe Biden about it earlier. They both agree on one thing, Pritzker said: “This madness must stop.”

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Law enforcement officers help evacuate people from an Anthropologie store in Highland Park, Ill., on July 4, 2022, after a shooter fired on the northern suburb’s Fourth of July parade. (Brian Cassella/AP)

The first popping noises sounded like firecrackers or maybe a gun salute honoring the American flag. Then someone screamed, “There’s a shooter.” And, in an instant, everyone understood the reality. “People were terrified, screaming,” Highland Park resident Joe Leslie said. “It was a scene from a nightmare.”

It’s a story witnesses to the deadly shooting at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade told over and over again in the hours after the tragedy. In painful, chilling detail they recounted how someone opened fire during an annual community celebration, killing at least six people, injuring more than two dozen and leaving an entire town traumatized.

Robert “Bobby” Crimo III seen in an image from video entitled “are you awake.” (YouTube)

The arrest of Robert “Bobby” Crimo III came about eight hours after the mass shooting.

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Crimo was described as a longtime resident of the suburb who posted online videos under the moniker “The Awake Rapper.” An archive of 17 YouTube videos apparently belonging to Crimo alternates between wholesome and foreboding.

Law enforcement officers respond to the scene of a mass shooting along the Fourth of July parade route, July 4, 2022 on Central Avenue in Highland Park. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Members of the Highland Park community had gathered to mourn victims of another American massacre in Uvalde, Texas, not 10 days before someone opened fired during the local Fourth of July parade. Yet Highland Park has had a prominent history of gun rights activism and controversy.

In this affluent suburb abutting Lake Michigan with a large Jewish population and predominantly liberal politics, Highland Park leaders enacted a ban on assault rifles in 2013 that was swiftly challenged by a local doctor and the Illinois Rifle Association. That legal fight was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case, allowing a lower court ruling in favor of the ban to stand.

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Law enforcement officers help evacuate people in Highland Park on July 4, 2022, after a shooter fired on the northern suburb’s Fourth of July parade. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

A shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park is the latest incidence involving gun violence to stun the United States.

The most deadly incident since May happened when a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at a school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24. And on May 14, a racist attack led to the deaths of 10 African Americans at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Liam Hendriks (31) stands on the mound after Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford (3) hit a RBI single during the ninth inning at Guaranteed Rate Field, April 13, 2022 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

The Chicago White Sox consulted with Major League Baseball on whether to play Monday night’s game with the Minnesota Twins after shootings at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park killed six and wounded more than two dozen others. The Sox played the game, but did cancel the postgame fireworks show and scheduled a moment of silence before the game.

“Unfortunately in this day and age, it’s becoming all too commonplace,” closer Liam Hendriks said of the Highland Park shootings. “The access to the weaponry that is being used in these things totally needs to change. Something needs to be done. Something needs to happen because there are way too many people losing their lives.”