USA: Alleged perpetrator of Highland Park shooting arrested – Death toll rises to 6

The US police have confirmed that they have taken into custody the alleged perpetrator of the deadly attack on people participating in or attending the 4th of July parade in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago.

So far, the toll of the attack, which was committed with a high-powered rifle from the roof of a shopping mall, is 6 dead and 26 injured. The alleged perpetrator was named as Robert («Bobby») Crimo the Third, a resident of the area, 22 years old.

The tragedy in the northern state of Illinois unfolded as the US is still reeling from the shock of the recent series of gun massacres.

Hundreds of police officers joined the manhunt to find the young man who spread death and terror among residents of the well-to-do town of about 30,000 people bordering Lake Michigan. Authorities released a photo of the young white man with a disemboweled face on which several tattoos can be seen.

The 22-year-old was described as «armed and very dangerous» by a police spokesman.

After a brief pursuit of his car, the suspect was taken into custody «without incident,» Lou Jogmen, police chief in Highland Park, told the press last night.

The young man had a presence on various websites, where he introduced himself as a Chicago musician under the pseudonym «Awake the rapper».

His motives are unknown at this stage.

Authorities deployed heavy forces, armoured vehicles, at least one helicopter, and federal reinforcements were also called in.

«Battlefield»

Yesterday, Monday, a public holiday in the United States, hundreds of residents, including many families with children and infants, took to the sidewalks of Highland Park to watch, as pretty much everywhere else in the country, the traditional Independence Day parade.

While student bands were marching, gunshots were heard. «There were about fifty shots fired, everyone thought it was fireworks,» Zoe, who was present, told CNN.

«At one point I saw a girl bleeding, I had never seen anything like that before,» he added, describing scenes of «panic, people falling on each other». She hid behind a rubbish bin, then sought shelter in a basement. On coming out, she said, she saw a «battlefield» in front of her.

According to the initial investigation, the young man opened fire from the roof of a commercial building into which he had climbed from the fire escape ladder. «He was very well hidden and difficult to locate,» a police spokesman described.

After opening fire, he fled. A «high-powered» rifle was found on the scene by police officers.

An eyewitness, retired doctor Richard Kaufman, said that in total, he reckons the gunman fired about 200 times. «It was pandemonium. People were stomping around. Babies were being thrown in the air. People were diving to the ground for cover. Bloody people were tripping over each other.».

Five people, all adults, were killed at the scene, the sixth succumbed after being taken to hospital. At least 26 injured - between 8 and 85 years old - were taken over by first aid services and some, including a child, are in critical condition, a medical source said.

Celebrations were immediately suspended in many nearby towns, where authorities closed beaches and urged people to be vigilant.

«American scourge»

It was only natural that the massacre in what was supposed to be a demonstration of American patriotism immediately reignited the debate on gun control, an issue that continues to deeply divide the country.

There are nearly 400 million firearms in circulation in the United States, more than the population.

«It is shocking that America's (independence) celebration was shattered because of a uniquely American plague,» commented Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker. «The only freedom we deny our citizens is to live without fear of daily gun violence.».

Declaring himself «shocked», Democratic President Joe Biden promised in a statement that he «will not give up the fight against the epidemic of gun violence» after the new bloodbath.

The US had not yet recovered from the shock of a series of mass massacres, in particular the one inside a primary school in Uvalde (Texas) that left 21 people dead, 19 children and two teachers, on 24 May.

The country is facing an upsurge in violent crime.

Firearms cause some 40,000 deaths annually in the US, including suicides, according to the specialist website Gun Violence Archive. This year, more than 22,000 people have already been killed, according to the same source.