Six dead, several others injured in July 4 parade shooting in Chicago

Pain, anguish, weeping, and despair gripped the scene of an Independence Day parade in an affluent suburb of Chicago, USA, following the killing of six people in another round of mass shootings.

This mass shooting comes after an 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, killing 19 students and two teachers and injuring several others.

According to the BBC, Chris O’Neil, a commander at the Highland Park police department, who gave a briefing about the event, described the shooter as a young male adult, a white man aged between 18 to 20 years old, smallish in stature, with long dark hair. He went on to say that the clothing he was putting on was a white or blue T-shirt.

Video footage from the scene of the shooting showed spectators running for safety, leaving their chairs and baby strollers behind.

An updated information from the BBC showed that the man believed to be behind the shooting has been arrested by members of the Chicago Police Force.

“The arrest follows an hours-long manhunt. Police are still describing the man in custody, Robert E. Crimo III, as a “person of interest” but believe he was the gunman.

“This individual is believed to have been responsible for what happened,” Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Chris Covelli said on Monday night.

This attack also followed a recent gun attack on shoppers at a shopping mall in Buffalo, New York last month after an 18-year-old white supremacist man was accused of gunning down 10 black people.

The US has been confronted on all sides with mass shootings, with the lives of defenceless adults and children being cut short at the hands of these shooters.

According to the World Population Review report about the rise in mass shootings in the US, between January 2009 and January 2018, a total of 288 lives were taken.

This is an action that has prompted “Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to ensure restrictions on gun ownership; carry out tougher background checks for purchases, and allow states to introduce “red flag” laws to prevent dangerous individuals from acquiring guns. The bill, however, was criticised for falling short of measures advocated by President Joe Biden and many Democrats.”