The Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, is the location of the most recent mass shooting in the United States. The city of Highland Park was in the midst of holding its annual Fourth of July parade when gunshots were heard as the parade began moving forward. Children and adults were seen running for their lives trying to escape the gunshots.
Robert E. Crimo III is a person of interest in the Highland Park parade shooting. Crimo has been apprehended without incident after a brief chase. Crimo was considered armed and dangerous, and as a result, Highland Park and surrounding suburbs were put on high alert and July Fourth festivities were canceled.
BREAKING: Police apprehend person of interest in the mass shooting at the July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Illinois, authorities say. https://t.co/Fmmv1FoP9I pic.twitter.com/GwOi6Ypa8s
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 5, 2022
This mass shooting follows the school shooting tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022 that killed 19 children and 2 adults. A rash of mass shootings have plagued the United States as of late, so much so that they appear to the public as common occurrences. Ten days before the Uvalde school shooting, accused shooter Payton S. Gendron, an 18-year-old White man, targeted a supermarket in a predominantly Black community and killed 10 people. On June 1, 2022, a grand jury returned a 25-count indictment against Gendron. He is facing 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime and three counts of attempted murder as a hate crime, according to court documents.
The mass shootings have kept the conversation surrounding gun laws at the forefront of the media. Three days ago, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law a bill restricting the concealed carry of firearms in locations such as government buildings and schools.
Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker vowed to bring the killer to justice and categorized these mass shootings as a plague as he addressed the community of Highland Park.
“There are no words I can offer to lessen the pain of those families who will no longer associate the Fourth of July with celebration, but instead with grief. Please know that our state grieves with you. MK and I and our family grieve with you,” Pritzker said. “It is devastating that a celebration of America was ripped apart by our uniquely American plague.”
