What We Know About the Shooting in Highland Park

A gunman shooting from a rooftop killed seven people and wounded dozens more during a Fourth of July celebration in Highland Park, Illinois, on Monday morning. A 21-year-old man who was taken into custody Monday evening after an extensive manhunt was charged Tuesday with seven counts of first-degree murder.

Here’s what we know so far.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said conviction on the first-degree murder counts would lead to a mandatory prison sentence of life without possibility of parole.

Rinehart said Tuesday that many more state charges were likely to be brought in the case, for felonies like attempted murder, aggravated battery and aggravated discharge of a firearm, in connection with other people who were harmed in the attack, whether physically or psychologically.

John Lausch, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said Tuesday that the state murder charges were “appropriate at this time,” and declined to say whether any federal charges might follow.

After the shooting, hundreds of police officers fanned out across the region around Highland Park to search for the man authorities suspected of being the gunman, warning that he was armed and dangerous. About 6:30 p.m., officers in North Chicago, Illinois, spotted and attempted to pull over a Honda Fit being driven by Robert E. Crimo III, 21. He briefly led police on a chase before he was taken into custody in Lake Forest, Illinois. Initially, local and federal officers referred to him as a person of interest in the case. He was charged in the case Tuesday.

While they hunted for him, and later when he was in custody, federal and local officers continued their investigation at the scene along the parade route, where lawn chairs, strollers and blankets left behind by fleeing parade attendees remained strewed about, a sign of the chaos and terror that followed the shooting.

Of the seven people who were killed in the shooting, at least six were adults; more than 30 people were injured, ranging in age from 8 to 85.

Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek released names Tuesday of six of the seven people who had died:

— 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.

The coroner said the seventh victim died at a hospital outside Lake County. Toledo was sitting along the parade route in his wheelchair when he was shot at least three times, according to his granddaughter. His son and his granddaughter’s boyfriend also were shot, but not fatally.

Sundheim was a member of the North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Illinois, where she had worked as an events coordinator and teacher.

Straus was still working as a financial adviser at a brokerage firm and commuted by train to his office in Chicago, his family said.

Authorities said they recovered a high-powered rifle at the scene of the shooting, which appeared to match witnesses’ description of events. When the suspect was apprehended, another rifle was found in the car he was driving.

Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said that the rifle used in the shooting appeared to have been purchased legally by Crimo in the Chicago area and that Crimo had legally purchased a total of five guns, including both rifles. Covelli said the suspect bought his firearms before he turned 21.

Covelli said that Crimo planned the shooting for several weeks but that authorities had not yet established what his motive was. “We have no information to suggest at this point it was racially motivated, motivated by religion or any other protected status,” the chief said, adding that there was no indication that anyone else was involved.

People had contacted police with concerns about Crimo twice in recent years, Covelli said.

— April 2019: Someone contacted police after learning Crimo had recently attempted suicide. Covelli said Tuesday that police spoke with Crimo and his parents about the matter at the time but did not pursue it further because it was being handled by mental health professionals.

— September 2019: A member of Crimo’s family told police that he had knives and was going to “kill everyone,” Covelli said. Officers who went to the family home removed 16 knives, a dagger and a sword, but the chief said they found no probable cause to make an arrest.

Authorities said the gunman wore women’s clothing to disguise his identity. He climbed up a fire escape ladder to gain access to the roof where he staged his attack, and then after the shooting, he climbed back down and left the scene on foot, blending in with fleeing paradegoers.

Police said Crimo walked to his mother’s home in Highland Park and borrowed her car. He then drove to the Madison area in Wisconsin before returning to Illinois, Covelli said. He was arrested after police in a nearby town spotted the car and tried to pull him over for a traffic stop.

The mass shooting in Highland Park was the fourth in Illinois since Friday in which at least four people were struck, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The state has among the strictest gun safety laws in the nation — including universal background checks, red flag warnings and safe storage requirements — but it is surrounded by states like Indiana that have far fewer restrictions to gun purchase and ownership.

Ten hours before the parade shooting, about midnight, five people were shot at a housing complex in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. On Friday, two people were killed and seven injured in two separate shootings in Chicago, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Also on Monday, the group reported, there were shootings with four or more people injured in Boston; Sacramento, California; Kansas City, Missouri; and Richmond, Virginia.