The 21-year-old accused of seven criminal counts of murder for shooting more than 80 times from a rooftop against the July 4 parade in Highland Park, Chicago, has confessed to being the author of the massacre in a voluntary declaration before the authorities, Lake County Prosecutor Eric Rinehart reported Wednesday.
The young man legally bought five weapons, including the high-powered rifle used in the shooting, despite the fact that the authorities went to his house twice
in 2019 for threats of violence and suicide
, according to the police, and thanks to the endorsement of his father, according to The Associated Press news agency.
Six people died at the scene that Monday.
A seventh victim died of his injuries a day later;
This Wednesday she was identified as Eduardo Uvaldo, 69 years old.
More than three dozen people were injured.
Investigative spokesman Christopher Covelli said the suspect had been planning the attack for several weeks, and reported that he had fled to his mother's house after the massacre dressed as a woman.
The prosecutor said the suspect faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted, and promised to file dozens more charges.
The young man planned to plead not guilty when appearing in court on Wednesday, according to his lawyer hours earlier.
Police search for evidence at the scene of the Highland Park July 4 parade mass shooting in downtown Highland Park, a Chicago suburb, Monday, July 4, 2022.Nam Y. Huh/AP
A county spokesman said the suspect, who was arrested Monday night,
used a rifle "similar to an AR-15" to shoot
from the top of a commercial building at the crowd that had gathered for the parade in Highland. Park, a thriving community of about 30,000 on the shores of Lake Michigan.
The young man admitted in his first statement, the prosecutor said, that he climbed onto a roof with a Smith and Wesson M&P 15 rifle, looked through the sights and fired down the street.
Eighty-three spent rounds were found at the scene, he said.
[A boy was found alone and bloodied after the Chicago shooting. The police searched for his parents but they were already dead]
They went out to celebrate independence and did not return: they identify six of those killed in Highland Park
July 5, 202201:04
The shooting occurred less than three years after police came to the suspect's home in September 2019 for a tip from a relative who said the young man was threatening to "kill everyone."
Covelli said police seized
16 knives, a dagger and a sword
, but did not appear to have any firearms.
In April 2019, police had already gone to his home for a suicide attempt call by the suspect, Covelli said.
The young man legally bought the rifle used in the attack last year.
He had five firearms, which were found by agents at his father's home and in the vehicle when he was arrested.
This revelation is just one more example of young people who were able to obtain weapons and carry out massacres in recent months despite clear signs about their mental health and violent attitude.
Illinois police, which issue gun owners' licenses, said the suspect applied for a license in December 2019, when he was 19 years old.
His father endorsed his request.
At the time, "there was insufficient basis to establish a clear danger" and deny the request, state police said in a statement.
Investigators who questioned the suspect and reviewed his social media posts
did not determine a motive or find any indication that he targeted victims by race, religion or other specific motive
, Covelli said.
[Suspect's YouTube channel showed the parade route and a simulation of the shooting]
Nine people, ages 14 to 70, remain hospitalized.
"You don't know where to run."
Witness to Highland Park shooting recounts how she tried to flee
July 6, 202201:43
The suspected killer initially evaded capture by dressing as a woman and blending in with the fleeing crowd, Covelli said.
A police officer took him into custody several hours after police posted the photo of him and warned that he was likely armed and dangerous, Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen said.
Parents are "stunned and shocked"
The suspect's father, a longtime
deli
owner , ran for mayor in 2019. The candidate who won that race, current Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, said she knew the young man as a boy in Cub Scouts.
.
“And it's one of those things where you take a step back and say, 'what happened?'” Rotering told NBC News, “how did someone become so aggressive, so hateful, to the point that they then took it out on people? innocent people who were literally having a family day?
[A son of the Mexican man killed in Highland Park wants the murderer to ask God for forgiveness: "I don't feel courage"]
Steve Greenberg, the parents' attorney, told The Associated Press that "
there's no chance of them being charged
with anything criminal" because they "didn't do anything wrong."
anyone," he added.
Since the beginning of the year there have been 15 shootings in the United States that have killed four or more people, including the one in Highland Park, according to The Associated Press.
Dozens of smaller-scale shootings in Chicago left eight people dead and 60 wounded over the Fourth of July weekend.
Who can buy guns in Highland Park
In 2013, Highland Park officials approved a ban on semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
A local doctor and the Illinois Rifle Association challenged the order in court, but the Supreme Court ultimately refused to hear the case and the ban was upheld.
Under Illinois law, felony offenders, drug addicts, and people who are “mentally defective” or capable of harming themselves or others may be denied the purchase of guns.
That should prevent a suicide bomber from getting a gun.
The United States records an average of 11 mass shootings every week this year
July 6, 202200:39
But under the law, who is "mentally defective" must be decided by "a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority."
The state has a so-called red flag law to stop dangerous people before they kill, but it requires family members, relatives, roommates or the police to ask a judge to order the seizure of weapons.
The scene of the shooting, a day later
The shots were initially mistaken for fireworks before hundreds of attendees fled in terror.
A day later, strollers, lawn chairs and other items left behind by panicked parade-goers were still within a wide police perimeter, with FBI agents searching among those items and inside trash cans for more evidence. .
Outside the police tape, some neighbors came to collect blankets and chairs that had been abandoned.
David Shapiro, 47, said the gunshots turned the parade into "chaos."
A tricycle is seen near the scene of a mass shooting on a July 4 parade route, in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Ill. MAX HERMAN/REUTERS
"People didn't immediately know where the shots were coming from, if the gunman was in front of you or behind you chasing you," he said Tuesday as he retrieved a stroller and lawn chairs.
The Chicago shooting was just the latest to break the rituals of American life.
Schools, churches, grocery stores, and now community parades have become killing fields in recent months.
This time, the bloodshed came as the nation tried to celebrate its founding and the ties that still hold it together.