United States: The suspect of the July 4 shooting, near Chicago, charged with seven murders – 20 Minutes

At only 21, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Robert Crimo, is accused of having opened fire during the celebrations of the American National Day in Highland Park, near Chicago. He has been charged with seven murders, authorities said on Tuesday. General of Lake County. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, he said. “Dressed as a woman” Prepared “for weeks”, his attack was carried out with a “gun powerful similar to an AR-15″ to fire presumably at random on the crowd attending the July 4th parade from the top of the roof of a business, said Christopher Covelli, a police official. Robert Crimo had ” dressed as a woman” to hide his identity and may have worn a long hair wig to hide his face tattoos, he continued, adding that he then dropped his gun and blended into the mass of people fleeing. . The man, nicknamed Bobby, fired more than 70 times, killing seven and wounding at least 35, according to a police report on Tuesday. US Vice President Kamala Harris visited the scene on Tuesday evening It is ‘disbelief but also resignation’ Among those who died are a couple, Irina and Kevin McCarthy, whose two-year-old son, Aiden , had been brought to safety by residents. On Tuesday, the main street of this affluent Chicago suburb remained frozen in the first moments of the shooting, with objects abandoned here and there in the chaos of Monday: stroller, tricycle or folding chairs. In front of a church, blue hearts were mounted on small white poles. In the middle are the names of the victims of the shooting. Residents of the town took turns Tuesday evening to write a note on the hearts which will then be given to the families of the missing. “We are all devastated”, summarizes in front of this makeshift memorial Susanna Calkins, a resident. She says she is immersed in “disbelief, but also resignation: these things happen again and again. And this time it’s here, it’s ours. Victims “gutted by bullets” Dr. David Baum, a doctor who participated in the rescue operations at the scene of the tragedy, testified on CNN of the horror of the attack, referring to victims “exploded” or “gutted by the bullets. Originally from Highwood, a small nearby town, the shooter was identified thanks to surveillance videos and the tracing of the weapon he had legally purchased, said Christopher Covelli. According to the policeman, the young man had made an attempt to suicide in April 2019 and had been followed by a doctor. In September 2019, officers intervened at the family home after a report warned that he was “going to kill everyone”. The police then seized sixteen knives, a dagger and a sword. He had not been arrested because no one had filed a complaint. More than 22,400 victims since the beginning of the year Archived images on the suspect’s Twitter account show him in particular with a flag of support for former Republican President Donald Trump on the back. The country is still reeling from a series of shootings, one of which killed 21 people, including 19 children, on May 24 in Texas. President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered the lowering of flags on public buildings. He recently obtained a relative political success by getting Congress to pass a law aimed at better regulating the sale of arms, of which nearly 400 million are in circulation in the United States. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which includes suicides in its data, more than 22,400 people have been killed by firearms since the start of the year.