FBI investigates July 4 Chicago parade shooting scene

FBI agents are looking for more evidence at the scene where a gunman shot and killed at least six people during an Independence Day parade on the rooftop of a Chicago suburb.

The gunfire was initially mistaken for fireworks, before hundreds of panicked revellers fled in terror in Highland Park, a tight-knit community along Lake Michigan.

A day later, strollers, lawn chairs and other items left by panicked marchers remained in the vast police cordon.

Outside the cordon, some residents drove up to collect their discarded blankets and chairs.

Authorities detained a suspect named Robert E. Cremer III at a traffic stop on Monday night, leading to a brief manhunt.

Police initially described the man as a person of interest, but a spokesman for the Lake County Crime Squad said he is now considered a suspect.

Charges are expected to be announced soon, according to a spokeswoman for Lake County Attorney Sarah Avalos.

Authorities did not provide a motive for the attack.

The July 4 shootings are just the latest to break American habits. Schools, churches, grocery stores and now community marches have all become killing fields in recent months.

This time, the bloodshed comes as America tries to find a reason to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together.

The shooting occurred at a spot along the parade route, where many residents had set up a major viewing point for the annual celebration earlier in the day.

Among them was Nicolas Toledo, who was visiting his family in Illinois from Mexico. He was shot at the scene, his granddaughter Xochil Toledo told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Also killed was Jacki Sundheim, a lifelong member of the nearby Israel North Shore congregation and a staff member of Beloved, which announced her death on its website.

Dozens of bullets sent hundreds of marchers – some visibly bleeding – flee.

They left behind a string of abandoned objects that were suddenly and violently disrupted: a box of chocolate chip cookies spilled on the grass; Chicago Cubs kid’s hats; strollers, some of them with American flags.

“There’s no safe place,” said Barbara Harte, a 73-year-old Highland Park resident who stayed away from the parade out of fear of a mass shooting, but then ventured out of her home.

Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen said a police officer stopped Cremer about 5 miles north of the shooting scene hours after police released a photo of the man and warned he might be armed and in danger.

Authorities initially said Cremer’s father ran for mayor of Highland Park when he was 22, but an FBI announcement and Cremer’s social media said he was 21.

Lake County Coroner Jennifer Bannek said the five people killed in the parade were adults, but there was no information on a sixth person.

North Shore University Health admitted 26 patients following the attack. All but one had gunshot wounds, said emergency preparedness medical director Dr. Brigham Temple. Their ages ranged from 8 to 85, and Dr. Temple estimated that four or five were children.

“It’s devastating that the celebration of America is torn apart by our uniquely American plague,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said in a news conference.

“While we celebrate the Fourth of July only once a year, mass shootings have become a weekly — yes, weekly — American tradition.”

Cremer, who goes by the name Bobby, is an aspiring rapper known by his stage name Wake Up Rapper, who has posted dozens of videos and songs on social media, some ominous and violent.

In an animated video taken down by YouTube, Cremer said the army was “walking in the dark,” showing a man pointing at a rifle, a body on the ground and a man with a raised hand in the distance.

Creamer’s father, Bob, a longtime deli owner who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Highland Park in 2019, described himself as “a man who serves the people.”

The community of approximately 30,000 people on Chicago’s North Shore, with mansions and sprawling lakefront estates, was once the home of NBA legend Michael Jordan.