First responders work the scene of a shooting at a Fourth of July parade on July 4, 2022 in Highland Park, Illinois. Reports indicate at least five people were killed and 19 injured in the mass shooting. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
Police are searching for a young white man who began firing from a rooftop at people enjoying a July 4th parade, killing at least six and injuring almost 30 more. Police said a “person of interest” is 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo III, who goes by Bobby. They said he was driving a 2010 Honda Fit and is "considered very dangerous.”Hundreds of police officers are actively involved in the search for the shooter in Highland Park, an affluent Chicago-area suburb. Police say the suspect has long black hair and a “slight” build. Residents in Highland Park are being told to shelter in place as the search continues. The rifle used in the shooting has not been identified but has been described as "high-powered."The shooting took place at the city’s Fourth of July parade shortly after 10 a.m. local time. Authorities say the suspect, using a rifle positioned on a rooftop, shot into the crowd. Police are actively searching homes in the area door by door.
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"Stay vigilant right now. This person has not been identified,” said Lake County Sheriff Sgt. Christopher Covelli at a press conference. ”By all means, at this point, this appears to be completely random.""Investigators are very, very quickly working to try to identify who this person is, and try to figure out where he's at," he added.An eyewitness told the New York Times that the man was wearing fatigues and had a hat pulled over his head and that he fired from the roof of a cosmetics store. “I can’t even get the image of the guy out of my head,” Shawn Cotreau, 47, told the Times. “He was just opening up fire. And I saw the bullets hitting the tree that was literally in front of us.”
Another witness told the outlet that people seemed to confuse the shots for fireworks at first. Eyewitnesses told the Chicago Sun-Times that they heard up to 20 shots fired in several bursts. A doctor who attended the parade told NBC that he helped treat those injured in the shooting. "The bodies that I saw, it was not an image that anyone who's not a physician would have an easy time processing," he said. "There were people who were immediately killed with horrific gunshot wounds.”With files from David Gilbert.