Man Pleads Guilty in Illinois Fourth of July Parade Shooting
The New York Times
The guilty plea came just as his murder trial was about to start, for an attack in a Chicago suburb in 2022 that killed seven people.
The man accused of killing seven people with a high-powered rifle during a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago in 2022 pleaded guilty on Monday, just as opening statements were expected to begin in his murder trial.
The man, Robert Crimo III, pleaded guilty to 69 criminal counts, including murder and attempted murder, which will result in a sentence of at least seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
“Is this what you want to do today, plead guilty?” Judge Victoria A. Rossetti of Lake County circuit court asked Mr. Crimo, who sat expressionless in court, wearing a suit and tie and staring straight ahead.
“Yes,” Mr. Crimo answered when Judge Rossetti asked if he understood what had been explained to him about his plea.
The surprise plea averted a jury trial in a crime that shocked Highland Park, Ill., a lakefront suburb of Chicago. Prosecutors said Mr. Crimo climbed onto a rooftop in downtown Highland Park on July 4, 2022, and sprayed bullets onto the crowd at the parade below. He managed to escape during the chaos, but was apprehended in a nearby town hours later.
The attack left Highland Park paralyzed with terror and grief, upending an event that was meant to celebrate freedom and community in a close-knit town. Dozens of people who were in attendance were wounded by bullets and taken to nearby hospitals. Residents were warned to stay in their homes during the search for the gunman. In the Chicago region, fireworks displays and other town gatherings to celebrate the Fourth of July were called off.
