Evil sniper picked off six targets
MURDER ON THE FOURTH OF JULY...
CHICAGO: A rooftop gunman with a high-powered rifle turned a family-focused Independence Day celebration into a scene of death and trauma with six people killed at a July 4 parade in a wealthy area of Chicago.
Suspect Robert Crimo was arrested hours later after a police pursuit ended a massive manhunt across the town of Highland Park.
A police officer spotted a silver Honda matching the car Crimo, 22, was believed to be driving and attempted to pull him over. Crimo instead accelerated and fled before the brief chase came to a stop and he surrendered without incident.
Footage of the arrest shows Crimo’s car stopped at an intersection with dozens of police vehicles behind, before he gets out with his hands up and lays face-down on the road. Officers then quickly swarmed in with their guns out and handcuffed him.
Investigators found a highpowered rifle at the scene that is believed to have been used in the massacre.
The alleged killer “was very military-style, methodical in the way he was crouched and shooting,” an officer told local TV.
In the months before the attack, Crimo – an aspiring rapper who goes by the name Awake – uploaded a dis
jointed music video for his song On My Mind. In the three minute video, he appears to be dressed in a gunproof vest and military-style helmet. In another video, a scene features a harrowing stick figure drawing of a man who resembles Crimo and appears to be holding people hostage with a rifle.
Firing from a roof into the July 4th holiday crowd, Crimo triggered scenes of total chaos as panicked onlookers ran for their lives, leaving behind a parade route strewn with chairs, abandoned balloons and personal belongings.
Emergency officials said around two dozen people, in
cluding children, were treated for gunshot injuries, with some in a critical condition.
“We were getting ready to march down the street and then all of a sudden waves of people started running towards us. And right before that happened, we heard the pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and I thought it was fireworks,” Emily Prazak, who marched in the parade, said.
Don Johnson, who attended the parade, said he initially thought the gunshots were a car backfiring.
“And finally, I heard the screams from a block down and people running and carrying their kids and everything, and we ran into the gas
station, and we were in there for three hours,” he said.
“I’ve seen scenes like this over and over again on the TV and in different communities, and didn’t think it was going to happen here ever.”
“It sounds like spectators were targeted … so very random, very intentional and very sad,” said police spokesman Christopher Covelli.
Five of the six victims, all adults, died at the scene. The sixth died in hospital.
President Joe Biden voiced his shock after the latest massacre to rock the US and vowed to keep fighting “the epidemic of gun violence” sweeping the country. “I’m not going to give up,” he said.