Metro East Sun

While Highland Park residents celebrated the Fourth of July at a parade, seven attendants were shot by a sniper. A 21-year-old man later confessed to the crime.

“The news coming out of Highland Park is heartbreaking,” Sen. Doris Turner (R-Decatur) wrote on Facebook. “Families coming together to celebrate the birth of our nation, only to leave in terror and fear for their lives.”

CNN reported Robert “Bobby” Crimo III. has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart announced during a news conference Tuesday evening.

Seven people were killed and dozens wounded.

The Chicago Sun Times wrote "at 6:45 p.m. Monday, the Highland Park police said a “person of interest” — identified as Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III, 21 — had been “taken into custody without incident” on U.S. 41 at Westleigh Road in Lake Forest.

The arrest came after he was spotted by a North Chicago police officer and following a short chase. Crimo was taken to the Highland Park police station, police Chief Lou Jogmen said.

ABC7 Chicago reported Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey told Highland Park residents to “move on.” He later apologized and tried to blame the shooting on incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

In a July 6 hearing, prosecutors say that Crimo confessed.

The shooting began at 10:14 a.m. local time, soon after the parade began. Crimo was on a rooftop overlooking the parade route, Assistant State's Attorney Ben Dillon said, where a witness saw him "scanning the crowd with a gun and saw muzzle flashes come from the roof."

Afterward, surveillance video is said to have captured the suspect running from the scene with a bag slung over his shoulder.

As he ran, Dillon said, an object wrapped in cloth fell from the bag into the alley, where it was later recovered by police — inside was a Smith and Wesson M&P 15, legally purchased by Crimo in 2020. On the roof, police found three magazines and 83 spent shell casings.

After Crimo was taken into custody Monday night, prosecutors said, he gave a voluntary statement to police confessing to the shooting and identified himself on surveillance video. 

The Anti-Defamation League wrote U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) claimed the mass shooting was a “false flag” event to convince Republican voters to support gun reform.

“It is with a heavy heart that I bring to you the names of the victims of that tragedy," Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said at a press conference late Tuesday afternoon.

Lake County Coroner has named six victims, and the Cook County Medical Examiner has named one.

Katherine Goldstein, 64, of Highland Park

Irina McCarthy, 35, of Highland Park

Kevin McCarthy, 37, of Highland Park

Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63, of Highland Park

Stephen Straus, 88, of Highland Park

Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78 of Morelos, Mexico

Eduardo Uvaldom, 69, Waukegan