Not a day goes by without another shooting in the United States. This time it’s in Highland Park, an affluent suburb of Chicago, that“gunman opened fire during independence day parade […]killing at least six people and injuring nearly twenty-five others, in the latest mass shooting aimed at terrorizing an American community”reports the most important local daily, the Chicago Tribune. It was around 10 a.m. (5 p.m. in Paris), after the start of the traditional 4th of July parade, that a “sniper on a rooftop started shooting randomly at spectators”, before fleeing.
Five hours later, the identity of the suspect was made public by the police: Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III, “a 22-year-old white male from the area”according to the police quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times. The “manhunt” did not last long. At 6:45 p.m. (local time), he was apprehended”after a short chase in north Chicago” before being taken to the Highland Park police station, “to be interrogated”. The police say “not knowing his motives”, but insisted on the character “very random and very intentionalfrom his shots.
As soon as his identity was revealed, Internet users and journalists conducted the investigation online, to try to find out more about “Bobby” Crimo. The Daily Beast delivers a first chilling digital portrait of this “amateur rapper who posted disturbing videos on his YouTube channel, including crude animation of a gunman killed by police”. In addition to itsvideos full of violent images and shooting fantasies”, Crimo, whose stage name is Awake The Rapper (“Le rappeur éveillé” in French) last year published on his blog a video of the main street of the parade, where he committed his crime.
“Violence now everywhere”
Le New York Times interviewed numerous witnesses on the spot, who expressed “terror, chaos and confusion” who reigned after the shooting. They also testified to their “stupor” to see such a massacre taking place in a residential area, calm and affluent. Mr. Zaremski, a resident of Highland Park for decades thus confessed on a daily basis “that he had never seen such violence in his life” and that from now “it’s like all suburban neighborhoods should be on their toes”. Mr. Rosas, a grocery store worker who moved from Chicago to Highland Park two years ago precisely to get away from the violence, believes that it “is now everywhere”.
In the New York Times Still, Dan Simmons dwells on the tragic story of Nicolas Toledo, 76, who “didn’t want to attend the 4th of July Parade in Highland Park, but [que] his disability required [à être] constantly surrounded”. But his familydid not intend to miss the parade”. Mr. Toledo was sitting in his wheelchair along the parade route, between his son and nephew, when the bullets started flying. “We were all in shock”, testified Xochil Toledo, his granddaughter. “We thought it was part of the parade”. Then, she said, “we understood that our grandfather had been affected. We saw blood splatter us”. Nicolas Toledo was killed instantly by three bullets.
“Particularly symbolic”
The Guardian notes that while mass killings are common in the United States, “the latter seems particularly symbolic since the shooter targeted a parade of flags celebrating the country’s national holiday” :
“Once again Americans are forced to ask themselves how and why their nation is so often hit by such bloody attacks.”
The British daily cites the reactions of several political figures, including the Democratic Governor of Illinois, Democrat JB Pritzker. He invited his fellow citizens to “put an end to the terror of gun violence plaguing our country. […] Sorrow won’t bring back the victims and prayers won’t be enough”.
US President Joe Biden said to himself “shocked” by the shooting and what he described as “meaningless gun violence that still mourns an American community on this Independence Day”. In his television statement broadcast in particular by ABC, he took the opportunity to recall that he had “recently signed the first major bipartisan gun reform law in nearly thirty years”. He added that he was not going tonot give up the fight against this epidemic of gun violence”.