Status: 06.07.2022 02:08 am
After the bloody act at a parade near the US city of Chicago with seven dead, the alleged shooter has been charged with seven murders. He faces life imprisonment – and according to the public prosecutor’s office many other charges.
The alleged gunman has been charged with seven counts of murder after the bloody deed at a US National Day parade in a suburb of Chicago.
“These are just the first of many charges,” Lake County District Attorney Eric Rinehart said in the small town of Highland Park. He expects the 21-year-old suspect to be held accountable on dozens of other counts.
If convicted, however, the charges of first-degree murder alone would carry a sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole. Rinehart announced that the public prosecutor’s office would apply to the court this Wednesday for the suspect to be remanded in custody – without the possibility of bail pending a verdict.
Renewed calls for tightening of gun laws
The prosecutor emphasized that more needs to be done to ensure people’s safety. He called for a nationwide ban on assault rifles, which have been used in numerous massacres in the United States, including the recent Highland Park crime. US President Joe Biden recently failed to make the same request due to resistance in Congress.
A gunman opened fire in Highland Park on Monday, US Independence Day. The alleged perpetrator was caught hours later. As the police announced on Tuesday, he had fired a “powerful rifle” from the roof of a commercial building indiscriminately at the crowd celebrating and fired about 70 shots. More than 30 people were injured. The death toll rose to seven on Tuesday after another victim died from his injuries.
CBS: Two-year-old boy loses both parents in a bloody attack in the USA
The fatal shots made a media report orphaned a two-year-old boy named Aiden. The 37-year-old father and the child’s two-year-old mother were among the seven fatalities in Monday’s action in Highland Park, CBS reported.
The names of the parents were also on the list of fatalities, which was read out in a halting voice by coroner Jennifer Banek. So they came from Highland Park. CBS said Aiden was separated from his parents in the chaos after the shooting. A couple discovered the boy in the care of a strange woman who was obviously in shock. The couple then took the child with them and brought it to the fire department. Aiden was later handed over to his grandparents by the police.