Highland Park shooting – live: Witness says attack ‘sounded like fireworks’ as police arrest Robert Crimo

A retired doctor standing across the street where the gunman opened fire, said “it sounded like fireworks going off”.

“It was pandemonium,” Richard Kaufman told Reuters, adding that he heard about 200 shots. “People were covered in blood tripping over each other.”

A Mexican national is one of the victims in the shooting incident, announced Mexico’s director for North American affairs Roberto Velasco said on Twitter.

He said two other Mexicans were wounded.

The Chicago White Sox talked to Major League Baseball on Monday about postponing their game against the Minnesota Twins after a gunman opened fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago, killing at least six people.

After the team’s conversation with MLB and contact with local authorities, the game was played as scheduled. The postgame fireworks show was cancelled and a moment of silence was observed before the first pitch of the Twins’ 6-3 victory.

“Our hearts are with the Highland Park community,” the White Sox said in a statement. “The entire Chicago White Sox organization expresses our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the innocent victims of today’s horrific shooting and all of those who have been affected by this tragedy.”

“Something need to change,” White Sox closer Liam Hendriks said. “Something needs to be done, something needs to happen because there’s too many people losing their lives.”

“Unfortunately, it’s almost daily,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said of the shootings. “Way too frequently.

“Even when there’s an explanation, there’s no explanation. It doesn’t make sense.”

Actress Rachel Brosnahan, who hails from Chicago’s Highland Park, said she felt “sick to my stomach” following news of the mass shooting in her hometown.

“I grew up in Highland Park and this parade is a highlight of the year for so many families,” she tweeted. “I’m sick to my stomach every time news like this comes out, but I don’t wish the pit in your stomach as you call your family and friends to make sure everyone is okay on anyone. No words.”

Authorities said a man named as a person of interest in the shooting was taken into police custody yesterday evening after an hours-long manhunt around Highland Park.

Highland Park police chief Lou Jogmen said a police officer pulled over Robert E Crimo about five miles north of the shooting scene, several hours after authorities released the man’s photo and an image of his silver Honda Fit and warned the public that he was likely armed and dangerous.

The police declined to immediately identify him as a suspect but said identifying him as a person of interest and sharing his name and other information publicly was a serious step.

Mr Crimo, who goes by the name Bobby, is an aspiring rapper with the stage name Awake the Rapper, posting on social media dozens videos and songs, some ominous and violent.

In one animated video now taken down by YouTube, he raps about armies “walking in darkness” as a drawing appears of a man pointing a rifle, a body on the ground and another figure with hands up in the distance. A later frame shows a close-up of a chest with blood pouring out and another of police cars arriving as the shooter holds his hands up.

In another video, in which he appears in a classroom wearing a black bicycle helmet, he says he is “like a sleepwalker. I know what I have to do,” then adds, “everything has led up to this. Nothing can stop me, even myself.”

His father, Bob, a longtime deli owner, ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Highland Park in 2019, calling himself “a person for the people.”

Several nearby cities cancelled events, including parades and fireworks in the aftermath of the Highland Park shooting. The Chicago White Sox announced on Twitter that a planned post-game fireworks show is cancelled due to yesterday’s gun violence.

Glencoe officials said the village was canceling its Fourth of July parade as they urged the residents to “remain home” with the “threat still at large.”

“There have been no incidents or direct threats to Glencoe. Public Safety are monitoring the situation and recommend avoiding public and crowded areas at this time,” the village tweeted.

In a nearby Deerfield, Families Days activities at Jewett Park was cleared and parade cancelled, the authorities announced on Twitter.

The police believe there was only one shooter at Highland Park. Since the incident, they have detained a man named Robert E Crimo, identifying him as a person of interest.

President Joe Biden on Monday said he and first lady Jill Biden were “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.”

Mr Biden signed the widest-ranging gun violence bill passed by Congress in decades, a compromise that showed at once both progress on a long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.

My colleague Andrew Feinberg reports:

Illinois governor JB Pritzker slammed the American “tradition” of poor gun control after the Highland Park shooting on the fourth of July that devastated a “celebration of America”.

“It is devastating that a celebration of America was ripped apart by our uniquely American plague,” Mr Pritzker said at a news conference.

“I’m furious because it does not have to be this way… while we celebrate the Fourth of July just once a year, mass shootings have become a weekly — yes, weekly — American tradition.”

The Monday shooting at Parkland High occurred at a spot on the parade route where many residents had staked out prime viewing points early in the day for the annual celebration.

Dozens of fired bullets sent hundreds of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fleeing.

They left a trail of abandoned items that showed everyday life suddenly, violently disrupted: A half-eaten bag of potato chips; a box of chocolate cookies spilled onto the grass; a child’s Chicago Cubs cap.

The July 4 shooting was just the latest to shatter the rituals of American life. With schools, churches, grocery stores and community parades becoming killing grounds in recent months, the bloodshed came this time as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its founding.

“There’s no safe place,” said Highland Park resident Barbara Harte, 73, who had stayed away from the parade fearing a mass shooting, but later ventured from her home.

“It definitely hits a lot harder when it’s not only your hometown but it’s also right in front of you,” resident Ron Tuazon said as he and a friend returned to the parade route Monday evening to retrieve chairs, blankets and a child’s bike that he and his family abandoned when the shooting began.

“It’s commonplace now,” Mr Tuazon said of what he called yet another American atrocity. “We don’t blink anymore. Until laws change, it’s going to be more of the same.”