‘The Five’ co-host Greg Gutfeld said mass shooters appear to fit a certain mold of being isolated from society and making themselves look ‘unapproachable.’
Greg Gutfeld pointed out Tuesday on “The Five” that recent mass shooters appear to fit a certain mold and discussed what the media can do to stop sensationalizing these tragedies.
GREG GUTFELD:I think every one of these cases, these fiends fit a type. They are these very White, unstable, disturbing-looking people. I feel you can’t judge a book by its cover, but in some cases, you can. I think there’s a correlation between disturbing, unstable behavior, and people who deliberately try to make themselves look unappealing and unapproachable. That could be their cry for help. If you look at Antifa that’s how they look. I think there is a red flag there that a lot of people in the name of what we will not point out and go – when someone is deliberately trying to deface themselves permanently, or look in a way that makes them unapproachable, what are they trying to tell you? If beauty is the guide of what is possible, then what is deliberate ugliness? Why does somebody do that? We don’t ask that anymore, as people continue to deface themselves in so many different ways. I will be an old saw on this. It was not suicide; it was suicide-plus, the only reason why you do that is to create a spectacle for attention.
So I think this one is a pretty square case of a copycat because it happened on the heels of these other ones. So what’s the point there? There are enough mass shootings to see these trends to see that they are mostly young White males. Not all of them, but they are rare enough where you could look at each one. If you take them away from gang shootings, from domestics, any kind of gun use in the purpose of a crime– just look at people shooting for the sake of shooting. It’s always influenced by the previous attack. If you thought that you could decrease these attacks by 30%, 40%, 50% why wouldn’t you?
The media could do that. We could just report the facts, be one and done and leave, instead of giving nonstop coverage. Remember, the media can decide not to cover something. Hunter’s laptop, they were easy with that. Border chaos they don’t cover that. The riots after George Floyd, they didn’t cover that. Look at the Akron shooting. They said that they covered the 60 shots from the police, but not the fact that the guy shot first. So they know how to not cover things.
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that an air alert was announced over almost the entirety of Ukraine last night, raising civilian anxiety. Meanwhile in Russia, the Parliament has given its initial approval to measures that put Russia’s economy on a war footing.
Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk that has found itself on the front line as Russian forces advance, has become the focus of Russian aggression in recent days. The British Defense Ministry said the battle for the city will be the “next key contest” for Ukraine.
The city’s mayor has urged civilians to evacuate as quickly as they can as Russian forces approach the city. Yesterday, a market in the center of the city was shelled, killing two people and injuring seven others.
Russia has turned its attention to capturing more parts of the Donetsk region of the Donbas, having already seized the neighboring Luhansk province. Donetsk is now experiencing heavy shelling, the same strategy that Russian forces used in Luhansk. Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Bakhmut are now Russia’s key targets.
Kremlin slams France’s decision to release Macron-Putin phone call comments
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticized the publication of fragments of phone conversations between President Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
“I think that diplomatic ethics, of course, does not imply such a one-sided leak of records,” the minister told reporters following his visit to Vietnam, according to comments reported by state news agency Ria Novosti.
A diplomatic rift has arisen between Moscow and Paris following the release of a documentary in France in which excerpts of a phone conversation between the presidents that took place on Feb. 20 were revealed.
The excepts included the Russian president complaining about the Ukrainian government, saying it was not “democratically elected” and Putin also saying he was speaking to Macron — who was trying unsuccessfully to persuade him to meet President Joe Biden in Geneva — from the gym.
Moscow has slammed the apparent breach of diplomatic norms, despite having itself published diplomatic correspondence between Russia, France and Germany over Ukraine last November.
On Wednesday, Lavrov tried to defend Russia’s actions in light of the latest spat with France, saying that “before we published the content of my talks with colleagues from France and Germany, we warned them three times that if we do not get clear explanations why they refuse the documents agreed upon with their direct participation, we will be forced to make public,” he said.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia’s Chechen allies vow to fight until Putin stops them
The Chechen allies of President Vladimir Putin have vowed to continue fighting in Ukraine, saying they would even go beyond the country, until the president stops them.
“There should be no doubt: The DPR [the Donetsk People’s Republic — a pro-Russian breakaway region], Mykolaiv, Kherson, Odesa, until Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin stops us. Inshallah [God willing] we’ll get to Berlin,” Chechen Parliament speaker Magomed Daudov told reporters.
Pro-Russian Chechen fighters have been part of Russia’s forces in Ukraine and have a fearsome reputation in battle, being experienced in urban combat following several conflicts with Russia itself in the ’90s and 2000s before a rapprochement between Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Putin a few years ago.
It’s doubtful that Daudov’s comments reflect any official policy in Moscow. There are also Chechens fighting for Ukraine.
— Holly Ellyatt
The battle for Sloviansk is fast approaching, UK says
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said a battle for the major city of Sloviansk on the front line in Donetsk is coming. Russian forces are advancing into the province of Donetsk following their capture of neighboring region Luhansk.
“Russian forces from the Eastern and Western Groups of Forces are likely now around 16 km north from the town of Sloviansk. With the town also under threat from the Central and Southern Groups of Forces, there is a realistic possibility that the battle for Sloviansk will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas,” the ministry said on Wednesday.
A market in Sloviansk was struck yesterday, killing two people and injuring seven others, the city’s mayor, Vadym Lyakh, said Wednesday.
The ministry noted that Russia is likely continuing to consolidate its control over Lysychansk and the Luhansk Oblast (province) where there has been severe fighting for weeks on end, culminating last weekend with Russia’s capture of the last Ukrainian-held city in the province.
To the north of Sloviansk, the British noted, Russia has “committed most of the remaining available units from the Eastern and Western Groups of Forces to the Izium axis,” referring to the route between Sloviansk via Izium, to Kharkiv in the northeast of Ukraine.
“Over the last week, Russian forces have likely advanced up to another 5 km down the E40 main road from Izium, in the face of extremely determined Ukrainian resistance,” the ministry said.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia looks to mobilize economy to sustain war
Russia’s Parliament has taken several steps toward putting the country’s economy on a war footing, with two bills being passed in the State Duma (the lower house of Parliament) that would allow the government to compel Russian businesses to supply the military with goods for the war effort.
“The load on the defense industry has increased significantly. In order to guarantee the supply of weapons and ammunition, it is necessary to optimize the work of the military-industrial complex and enterprises that are part of cooperation chains,” Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov told lawmakers Tuesday, according to a Reuters translation.
A second bill, also passed by the Duma after an initial reading, would amend the labor code. That means businesses supplying goods that assist the war effort could make their employees work at night, on weekends and holidays, and without annual leave, if necessary.
Both bills still need to undergo second and third readings in the Duma and must be approved by the upper chamber and signed off by President Vladimir Putin.
“The mobilization of the country’s economic and industrial potential to support the military is a tacit acknowledgment of significant losses incurred since the start of the invasion and approaching shortages of certain types of equipment,” Andrius Tursa, Central and Eastern Europe advisor at Teneo Intelligence, commented Tuesday.
“At the same time, Moscow could be seen as preparing to sustain its military operations in the longer run.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Air alert sounded over almost all of Ukraine, raising civilian anxiety, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said an air alert was announced over almost all of Ukraine on Tuesday night, leaving many civilians anxious after a period of relative calm in parts of the country.
“Before that, there had been no air alert in the capital and some regions for some time,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address, adding that this had left many people wondering whether Russia was planning something.
Zelenskyy told Ukrainians not to “overthink,” saying, “you should not look for logic in the actions of terrorists.”
“The Russian army does not take any breaks. It has one task — to take people’s lives, to intimidate people — so that even a few days without an air alarm already feel like part of the terror.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Mounting evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, UN says
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that her office has mounting evidence of Russian forces carrying out unlawful killings and summary executions.
“Growing evidence gives my office reasonable grounds to believe that serious violations of international humanitarian law in this regard have been committed by Russian armed forces,” Bachelet wrote in a statement.
Bachelet said that UN investigators have verified the recovery of more than 1,200 civilian bodies from Kyiv. She added that her office is working to corroborate more than 300 allegations of killings by Russian armed forces in situations that were not linked to active fighting.
“The arbitrary detention of civilians has also become widespread in territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups. Despite restrictions on access, we have documented 270 cases of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance,” she added.
The Kremlin has previously denied that its forces have committed crimes against civilians in Ukraine.
— Amanda Macias
U.S. and allies call for suspension of Russia and Belarus from international sports, ban on official state flags at athletic events
The State Department reiterated its calls for the international sports community to suspend Russian and Belarusian sports organizations and remove Russian and Belarusian individuals from positions of influence associated with the athletic community.
“National and international sports organizations should consider suspending the broadcasting of sports competitions into Russia and Belarus,” the State Department wrote in a statement adding that “official state Russian and Belarusian flags, emblems and anthems should be prohibited.”
“Furthermore, we reiterate our encouragement for the international sport community to continue to show its solidarity with the people of Ukraine, including through supporting the continuation and reconstruction of Ukrainian sport where possible,” the State Department wrote in a joint statement with representatives from more than 30 countries.
— Amanda Macias
‘Historic day,’ NATO chief says as all 30 NATO allies approve Finland and Sweden membership
All 30 NATO member countries approved accession protocols for Finland and Sweden to join the military alliance, a significant step in NATO enlargement.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the “historic day for Euro-Atlantic security.”
“With 32 nations around the table, we will be stronger and safer, as we face a more dangerous world,” Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.
In May, both nations began the formal process of applying to the NATO alliance.
— Amanda Macias
Pro-Russian forces are heading toward Donetsk, separatist leader says
Pro-Russian separatist forces from the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk “People’s Republics” (known as the DPR and LPR) are moving toward the Donetsk province, the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin said on Tuesday, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
“We can already say that our corps, the first corps that took part and helped our brothers [in the liberation of the LPR], is already moving to the Donetsk direction as well as the second corps [from] Luhansk,” Pushilin said.
Russia and its proxies in eastern Ukraine call the capture of the Luhansk region, which happened last weekend, a “liberation” although Russia is widely seen as using a rationale of “protecting” the breakaway separatist areas, which were founded in 2014 as Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, as an excuse for invading Ukraine.
Today, the more-infectious OmicronBA.5 subvariant is officially the dominant Covid strain in the U.S. Up until how, BA.5 has been tied to its sister Omicron subvariant, BA.4, as both had steadily outcompeted BA.2.12.1 — which itself had been driving cases for the past month or so.
After the original Omicron variant appeared on U.S. shores late last year and caused the deadliest wave of the pandemic, a succession of Omicron subvariants have come and gone: BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.2.12.1 and now BA.4 and BA.5.
BA.5 was first identified in South Africa on February 26. Less than a month ago, on June 4, it only accounted for 9.6% of cases in the U.S., while predecessor BA.2.12.1 sat atop the heap at 62%. Today, the CDC estimates the subvarient is responsible for about 54% of new cases here. That’s double BA.2.12.1, which now accounts for 27% of infections. BA.5’s rise also leaves sister subvariant BA.4 in the dust at 16%. It’s a faster ascention than that of any other variant over the course of the pandemic. And there’ve been a lot of them.
CDC
One reason BA.5 is so dominant is that it seems to be more transmissible than even BA.2.12.1 — (BA.4 has some of the same key spike protein mutations as BA.5, but hasn’t had the same impact.
“The Omicron sub-variant BA.5 is the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen,” said Eric Topal, who is Founder and Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, Professor of Molecular Medicine and Executive Vice-President of Scripps Research, in a substack post last week. “It takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility, well beyond Omicron (BA.1) and other Omicron family variants that we’ve seen.”
In other words, BA.5 is much better at evading the immunity provided by vaccines and especially good at dodging the immunity conferred by previous infection.
For example, BA.4 and BA.5 drove a substantial surge in South Africa recently that was not impacted by the county’s high level of immunity.
Per the journal Nature, those who have “hybrid immunity” from vaccination and a past infection are less able to ward off the BA.4 or BA.5 than they were previous strains. That’s because the vaccines we have now are targeting the spike proteins of previous strains. And the new variants have some very different mutations.
While vaccines are less effective, they’re and still more effective than immunization through infection. The jabs also help those infected with BA.4 and BA.5 better ward off the virus’s nastiest effects.
While cases have remained fairly static across the U.S., the New York Times notes that that may be more a result of the measuring stick than the actual measurement. The paper reports that with local and federal cuts to testing services, “lab-based P.C.R. testing capacity in July will be only half of what it was in March.” Add to that the increased use of at-home tests, the results of which are generally not reported, and virus surveillance across the nation is greatly reduced from what it was even six months ago.
Hospitalizations and deaths have not risen meaningfully, either, but then in Portugal it took three weeks after the BA.5 peak in cases for deaths to peak.
A more potent ability to reinfect also means that BA.5 has a larger pool of potential carriers. While other variants are limited by the protection afforded by inoculation, BA.5 can make its way back through populations who assume they’re more protected than they actually are.
“BA.4/5 drove a substantial case wave in South Africa regardless of their high level of immunity,” observed Kaitlyn Jetelina about two weeks ago. Jetelina tweets and blogs under the moniker Your Local Epidemiologist.
She goes on to note that “in South Africa, the BA.4/5 wave contributed to excess deaths, but fewer than past waves.”
In Europe, Portugal is the country hardest hit by the new Omicron subvariants. It experienced a peak in cases on May 16, according to the World Health Organization. Deaths in that country peaked almost exactly three weeks later, on June 6.
What does that mean for the U.S.?
Our future is harder to predict based on other countries’ experiences than it was previously. Portugal got hit much harder than the States in the winter 2000-2001 Delta wave and less hard by last winter’s Omicron surge, which ravaged the U.S. That might be good for us, since the original Omicron is likely more closely related than Delta to BA.5. Previous Omicron infections may provide more protection. Our winter Omicron wave was more recent, as well, which helps. But Portugal has a higher booster rate than the U.S.
One thing is for certain: This won’t be the last variant we see.
Topol warns that “new versions of the virus…are accelerating and we’re not done yet, by any stretch.”
Indeed, like tropical storms in the Caribbean this summer, there is a line of new variants already on their way. And experts say significant mutations — especially in the Omicron subvariants — are coming with increasing speed.
A new strain known as BA.5.1caused the largest outbreak of cases ever in Macau last week, which prompted local officials to put a large swath of the region under lockdown.
BA.5.1 has turned up in the U.S. in small numbers, as well as the U.K. and Portugal. The strain has been described as “the daughter of BA.5,” and Christine Pagel, Professor and Director of University College London’s Clinical Operational Research Unit, wrote in a piece last month that “it looks like BA.5 and 5.1 will likely win out to become the overall dominant variants.”
Since then, however, BA.2.75 has reared its head. While it’s not in the U.S. yet, the subvariant of BA.2 has been detected in England, Germany and India, where it reportedly has been found in 18% of samples. And it’s spreading fast. See chart below for graph of its growth in India.
More, unfortunately, to come.
Here’s the latest picture for the new BA.2.75 sub-lineage (nickname: “Centaurus”) – an evolutionary jump from BA.2.
It has most commonly been detected in India, showing extremely rapid growth to 18% of recent samples.
Police said the victims, attacked by a gunman firing from a roof, ranged from octogenarians to children as young as age 8. All six of those who died on Monday were adults, said Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said a seventh person died on Tuesday but did not immediately release the identity.
Irina and Kevin McCarthyCredit…
Adrienne Rosenblatt, 71, said she immediately feared the worst when she saw a photo online on Monday of the then-unidentified toddler who had been found by Ms. Silva. He was Ms. Rosenblatt’s neighbor, and she had coached him to overcome his fears of her small white dog, Lovie.
She alerted the boy’s grandparents, who brought him home from the police station. Irina Colon of Northbrook, Ill., a relative of the child’s mother, said in a fund-raising appeal that she posted on GoFundMe that the boy was “left in the unthinkable position; to grow up without his parents.”
“It’s just so sad,” Ms. Rosenblatt quietly said.
“Do you call him an orphan?” Ms. Rosenblatt quietly asked.
The Lake County coroner, Jennifer Banek, released the names of four other victims on Tuesday. “It is with a heavy heart,” she said, “that I bring to you the names of the victims of that tragedy.”
All but one were residents of Highland Park, the bucolic suburb north of Chicago where the celebration was a community tradition. They could have come from any Independence Day crowd in any town in the nation:
A grandfather who had been sitting in a choice spot his family had selected for him. A 63-year-old woman who was the go-to person for special events in her synagogue congregation. A beloved uncle who still went to work every day, even in his late 80s. A mother and wife who, only recently, had mused about where she would want her ashes scattered.
And a suburban couple who had taken their toddler to a parade.
Here, based on interviews, is what else we know about those who died.
Katherine Goldstein, 64
Katherine Goldstein, right, who died in the shooting, with her daughter, Alana.Credit…
A mother of two daughters in their early 20s, Katherine Goldstein was described by her husband, Craig Goldstein, as a perennial good sport who was willing to explore a succession of exotic locales without batting an eye. “She didn’t complain, ‘There are bugs.’ She was always along for the ride,” Dr. Goldstein, a hospital physician, said in an interview.
Dr. Goldstein said that his wife did not work outside their home after they were married in the late 1990s and that she devoted herself to being a mother. She took her elder daughter, Cassie, to the Highland Park parade on the Fourth so that Cassie could reunite with friends from high school. Ms. Goldstein was fond of playing games with her children, like the word game Bananagrams, her younger daughter, Alana, recalled.
Dr. Goldstein said that his wife and her siblings recently lost their mother, and that they had been discussing what kind of arrangements they would like for themselves upon their own death. He recalled that Katherine, an avid bird watcher, said she wanted to be cremated and to have her remains scattered in the Montrose Beach area of Chicago, where there is a bird sanctuary.
But the reflection on her own mortality was out of character, he said. “The amazing thing about Katie is that she never thought about her own death,” Dr. Goldstein said. “For me it’s almost a preoccupation. She never thought about it.”
Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78
Nicolas Toledo-ZaragozaCredit…
Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza didn’t want to attend the Highland Park Fourth of July parade, but his disabilities required that he be around someone full-time. And the family wasn’t going to skip the parade — even going so far as positioning chairs for a choice viewing spot at midnight the night before.
Mr. Toledo-Zaragoza was sitting in his wheelchair along the parade route, between his son and a nephew, when the bullets started flying. “We realized our grandfather was hit,” Xochil Toledo, his granddaughter, said. “We saw blood and everything splattered onto us.”
Mr. Toledo-Zaragoza suffered three gunshot wounds, killing him. He had moved back to Highland Park a few months ago from Mexico at the urging of family members. He had been struck by a car while walking in Highland Park a few years ago in a prior stint living with family, and had a range of medical issues resulting from that accident.
“We brought him over here so he could have a better life,” Ms. Toledo said. “His sons wanted to take care of him and be more in his life, and then this tragedy happened.”
Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63
Jacquelyn SundheimCredit…
A smile and a hug. Those were the guarantees every time Jacquelyn Sundheim — known as “Jacki” — walked into Marlena Jayatilake’s spice shop in downtown Highland Park, Ill.
“She was such a beautiful human being, a beautiful ray of light,” Ms. Jayatilake said. “So it’s definitely a dark day.”
Ms. Sundheim, a member of the North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Ill., was among the people killed in Highland Park, according to the synagogue, where friends said she coordinated events and did a bit of everything else.
Janet Grable, a friend, said she went far beyond her expectations in planning the bar mitzvahs for both her children and arranging special seating for her mother when she joined services while in town.
Stephen Straus, 88
Stephen StrausCredit…
A father of two, grandfather of four and a financial adviser who, at 88, still took the train every day from his Highland Park home to his office at a brokerage firm in Chicago, Stephen Straus “should not have had to die this way,” his niece, Cynthia Straus, said in a phone interview.
“He was an honorable man who worked his whole life and looked out for his family and gave everyone the best he had,” Ms. Straus said. “He was kind and gentle and had huge intelligence and humor and wit.”
Two of Mr. Straus’s grandsons, Tobias Straus, 20, and Maxwell Straus, 18, said in an interview that they and their parents typically gathered with Mr. Straus and his wife for dinner each Sunday evening, including the evening before the shooting. Tobias, who fondly recalled his grandfather’s sense of humor, said Mr. Straus was in vintage form.
“He ordered ‘spaghetti with two meatballs, hold one meatball,’” Tobias Straus said. After he complimented his grandfather’s watch, he added, his grandfather gave it to him “out of nowhere.”
“It was literally the night before.”
Cynthia Straus said her uncle and his community should have been better protected: “There’s kind of a mentality that this stuff doesn’t touch us,” she said.
“And no one can think that way right now — we are in an internal war in this country. This country is turning on itself. And innocent people are dying.”
Reporting was contributed by Amanda Holpuch, Michael Levenson, Eduardo Medina and John Yoon. Susan Campbell Beachy provided research.
From left, British Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrive at No. 9 Downing Street for a media briefing in 2021. Two of Britain’s most senior Cabinet ministers have quit, a move that could spell the end of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership after months of scandals.
Toby Melville/PA via AP
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Toby Melville/PA via AP
From left, British Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrive at No. 9 Downing Street for a media briefing in 2021. Two of Britain’s most senior Cabinet ministers have quit, a move that could spell the end of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership after months of scandals.
Toby Melville/PA via AP
LONDON — Two of Britain’s most senior Cabinet ministers resigned on Tuesday, a move that could spell the end of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership after months of scandals.
Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned within minutes of each other after a day in which the prime minister was forced to acknowledge he had to change his story on the way he handled allegations of sexual misconduct by a senior member of his government.
“It is with enormous regret that I must tell you that I can no longer, in good conscience, continue serving in this government,” Javid said in his resignation letter. “I am instinctively a team player but the British people also rightly expect integrity from their government.”
Sunak said “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. “
“I recognize this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning,” he added.
Both Sunak and Javid have been seen as possible leadership contenders within the Conservative Party if Johnson is forced out. Their departures were a huge blow to the prime minister, because both were in charge of two of the biggest issues facing Britain right now — the cost of living crisis and the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
The scandal involves a lawmaker appointed to a senior position despite claims of sexual misconduct
The latest scandal saw Johnson hit by allegations he failed to come clean about a lawmaker who was appointed to a senior position despite claims of sexual misconduct.
Johnson has faced pressure to explain what he knew about previous misconduct allegations against lawmaker Chris Pincher, who resigned as deputy chief whip Thursday amid complaints that he groped two men at a private club.
Minutes before the resignations of Javid and Sunak were announced, Johnson told reporters that Pincher should have been fired from the government after a previous 2019 incident.
Asked if it was an error to appoint Pincher to the government, Johnson said “I think it was a mistake and I apologize for it. In hindsight it was the wrong thing to do.”
“I apologize to everybody who has been badly affected by it. I want to make absolutely clear that there’s no place in this government for anybody who is predatory or who abuses their position of power,” Johnson said.
The government’s explanation shifted repeatedly over the past five days. Ministers initially said Johnson wasn’t aware of any allegations when he promoted Pincher to the post in February.
On Monday, a spokesman said Johnson knew of sexual misconduct allegations that were “either resolved or did not progress to a formal complaint.”
That account didn’t sit well with Simon McDonald, the most senior civil servant at the U.K. Foreign Office from 2015 to 2020. In a highly unusual move, he said Tuesday that the prime minister’s office still wasn’t telling the truth.
McDonald said in a letter to the parliamentary commissioner for standards that he received complaints about Pincher’s behavior in the summer of 2019, shortly after Pincher became a Foreign Office minister. An investigation upheld the complaint, and Pincher apologized for his actions, McDonald said.
McDonald disputed that Johnson was unaware of the allegations or that the complaints were dismissed because they had been resolved or not made formally.
“The original No. 10 line is not true, and the modification is still not accurate,” McDonald wrote, referring to the prime minister’s Downing Street office. “Mr. Johnson was briefed in person about the initiation and outcome of the investigation.
Hours after McDonald’s comments came out, Johnson’s office changed its story again, saying the prime minister forgot he was told that Pincher was the subject of an official complaint.
The latest revelations have fueled discontent within Johnson’s Cabinet after ministers were forced to publicly deliver the prime minister’s denials, only to have the explanation shift the next day.
The Times of London on Tuesday published an analysis of the situation under the headline “Claim of lying puts Boris Johnson in peril.”
Johnson survived a no-confidence vote after a scandal about lockdown-breaking parties
Johnson’s authority had already been shaken by a vote of no confidence last month. He survived, but 41% of Conservatives voted to remove him from office.
The prime minister’s shifting responses to months of allegations about lockdown-breaking parties in government offices that ultimately resulted in 126 fines, including one levied against Johnson, fueled concerns about his leadership.
Two weeks later, Conservative candidates were badly beaten in two special elections to fill vacant seats in Parliament, adding to the discontent within Johnson’s party.
When Pincher resigned last week as deputy chief whip, a key position in enforcing party discipline, he told the prime minister that he “drank far too much” the previous night and had “embarrassed myself and other people.”
Johnson initially refused to suspend Pincher from the Conservative Party, but he relented after a formal complaint about the groping allegations was filed with parliamentary authorities.
Critics suggested Johnson was slow to react because he didn’t want to be in the position of forcing Pincher to resign his Parliament seat and setting up the Conservatives for another potential special election defeat.
Even before the Pincher scandal, suggestions were swirling that Johnson may soon face another no-confidence vote.
In the next few weeks, Conservative lawmakers will elect new members to the committee that sets parliamentary rules for the party. Several candidates have suggested they would support changing the rules to allow for another vote of no confidence. The existing rules require 12 months between such votes.
Senior Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale, a long-standing critic of Johnson, said he would support a change of the rules of the Conservative 1922 Committee.
“Mr. Johnson has for three days now been sending ministers — in one case a Cabinet minister — out to defend the indefensible, effectively to lie on his behalf. That cannot be allowed to continue,” Gale told the BBC. “This prime minister has trashed the reputation of a proud and honorable party for honesty and decency, and that is not acceptable.”
The letter, which was delivered to the White House on Tuesday afternoon, was signed by a collection of Black female leaders from the realms of sports, entertainment, labor, business, politics and faith. It claimed Griner is “enduring inhumane conditions” during her imprisonment and said, “It is imperative, President Biden, that you address this ongoing human rights crisis and make a deal to bring Brittney home quickly and safely.”
Five Just Stop Oil activists spray paint the wall and glue themselves to the frame of the painting The Last Supper on Tuesday at the Royal Academy in London.
Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images
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Five Just Stop Oil activists spray paint the wall and glue themselves to the frame of the painting The Last Supper on Tuesday at the Royal Academy in London.
Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images
With a bit of glue and spray paint, protesters took action at a gallery at London’s Royal Academy of Arts to demand greater government action on climate change.
A group of at least five activists from the group Just Stop Oil spray painted “No New Oil” underneath the painting Copy of Leonardo’s The Last Supper and glued their hands to the artwork’s frame. The painting depicts the scene from the Bible when Jesus holds his last supper with his Twelve Apostles and tells them that one of them will betray him. The 500-year-old copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece has been attributed to da Vinci student Giampietrino, and painter Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio may have also worked on it.
The protesters that targeted the painting on Tuesday called on their nation’s government to commit to immediately ending all new oil and gas licenses in the U.K., according to a video showing the demonstration. They also called on members of the nation’s art institutions to support a “peaceful civil resistance,” Just Stop Oil said in a statement.
This past weekend six more activists from the same group were arrested following a protest on the track of a Formula 1 race at the Silverstone Circuit in England, according to the BBC.
The group says it’s turning to such public displays of protest to pressure global leaders to adhere to promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to curtail global warming.
Global leaders had agreed to limit the world’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100. Scientists say the most catastrophic effects of global warming can be prevented if successful, but the world is not on track to meet that target.
“We have no time left, to say that we do is a lie. We must halt all new oil and gas right now, we will stop disrupting art institutions as soon as the government makes a meaningful statement to do so,” Lucy Porter, 47, a former primary teacher from Leeds that participated in the demonstration, said in a statement provided by Just Stop Oil. “Until then, the disruption will continue so that young people know we are doing all we can for them. There is nothing I would rather be doing.”
The Royal Academy of the Arts didn’t immediately return NPR’s request for comment. It’s unclear if the painting suffered any damage as a result of the demonstration.
The 23-person special grand jury has heard testimony in recent weeks from a parade of witnesses, including some who had direct contact with Trump and his associates in late 2020 and early 2021. But Tuesday’s subpoenas are the closest jurors have gotten to the Trump campaign or inner circle of the former president.
Giuliani testified before Georgia legislators in late 2020, showing edited surveillance video of ballots being tabulated at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. The former New York City mayor said the tape was a “powerful smoking gun” of election workers pulling out “suitcases” of ballots to count after sending Republican poll watchers home.
Giuliani’s claims were quickly debunked by the Secretary of State’s office, but he continued to screen the video and doubled down on his comments in the weeks after. He was later suspended from practicing law in New York, in part because of his testimony in Georgia.
Eastman, a former law professor, was a key architect of the plan to press Vice President Mike Pence to reject the official Democratic electors in Georgia and other swing states and opt for an alternative slate of GOP electors. A federal judge in March argued that “it is more likely than not that President Trump and Dr. Eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”
Eastman testified at the same Georgia hearing as Giuliani, during which he argued that there was “more than enough” evidence of fraud and improper conduct to warrant Georgia lawmakers picking an alternative slate of presidential electors.
“I don’t think it’s just your authority to do that,” Eastman said, “but, quite frankly, I think you have a duty to do that to protect the integrity of the election here in Georgia.”
Deason and Ellis also spoke at the same hearing.
Chesebro worked with the leadership of the Georgia GOP to coordinate a slate of alternate Republican electors, according to his subpoena. The DA’s office said Chesebro drafted at least two memos in support of the plan and provided a template of documents to the party for its sham ceremony at the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020.
Mitchell, a conservative lawyer based in Washington, D.C., advised Trump on the infamous Jan. 2, 2021, call that the Republican placed to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During that conversation, in which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes, Mitchell aided Trump as he made unsubstantiated claims about Georgia’s elections.
Graham separately called Raffensperger and his staff twice in the weeks following the November 2020 elections “about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” his subpoena alleges. Graham previously denied wrongdoing.
It may be difficult for Fulton prosecutors to secure testimony from Giuliani, Eastman, Mitchell, Chesebro, Deason and Ellis, since they could argue attorney-client privilege. Eastman claimed the exemption as he sought to block the handover of evidence to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, though he was largely shot down by a federal judge.
Bob Costello, Giuliani’s attorney, declined to comment and said his client had not been served any subpoena. A spokesman for Graham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis launched the criminal probe into Georgia’s elections in February 2021, weeks after a recording of the Trump-Raffensperger phone call leaked. She’s since expanded the investigation to include the fake GOP electors, Giuliani’s testimony to state legislators and other efforts to pressure Georgia officials to act in Trump’s favor.
The special grand jury has permission to meet until May 2023, though Willis said she’s expecting the group’s work to wrap up long before then. Jurors are expected to draft a report at the end of their service recommending whether Willis should press charges against Trump or his allies, though the final decision ultimately rests with the DA, a Democrat elected in 2020.
Willis is currently fighting with at least two current and former Republican officials in Georgia over subpoenas. Attorneys for Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and ex-Sen. William Ligon argued last week that the state Constitution shields them from testifying about anything related to their legislative activities.
The District Attorney’s office countered that activities that seek to reverse certified election results are not protected by so-called legislative immunity.
McBurney, who heard arguments from the DA’s office and the lawmakers on Friday, is currently drafting a framework about the types of questions prosecutors can ask without violating immunity rules.
Nicolas Toledo, 78, was identified as one of the victims of the mass shooting in downtown Highland Park, Illinois, during a Fourth of July parade, an official of the Mexican state of Morelos confirmed to CNN.
Six of Toledo’s eight children live in the United States. One of them was injured in the shooting as well as two other members of the Toledo family, according to a statement from Mexican authorities.
Toledo loved to paint, go fishing and go on walks with his family in the park, his granddaughter Kimberly Rangel told CNN affiliate WBBM.
Xochil Toledo, another grandchild, started a GoFundMe page, where she describes Toledo as a “loving man” who was “creative, adventurous and funny.”
“As a family we are broken, and numb,” she wrote, adding that her grandfather is now the family’s guardian angel and asked people to keep them in her prayers.
“I love you abuelito. Descansa en paz,” she wrote.
According to the official in Mexico, Toledo’s family wants to repatriate him to Mexico.
An exasperated Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said early Tuesday morning after two police officers were shot that he is so worried about safety at public events that he will “be happy” when he is no longer the mayor, prompting national attention and calls for his resignation.
Standing alongside police brass outside Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Kenney made the comments just after midnight, about two hours after gunfire rang out and chaos ensued during the city’s annual Independence Day celebration on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
“There’s not an event or a day where I don’t lay on my back at night, looking at the ceiling and worry about stuff,” he said in response to questions about the administration’s response to gun violence. “So everything we have in the city over the last seven years, I worry about. I don’t enjoy Fourth of July. I didn’t enjoy the [2016] Democratic National Convention. I didn’t enjoy the NFL Draft. I’m waiting for something bad to happen all the time.
“So I’ll be happy when I’m not here — when I’m not mayor, and I can enjoy some stuff.”
A reporter followed up, asking: “You’re looking forward to not being mayor?”
“Yeah,” Kenney said with a smirk, “as a matter of fact.”
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw began speaking and returned attention to the response to the shooting, which left two officers with graze wounds. Both were treated and released Monday night. No one had been arrested as of Tuesday morning.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.
One of them, at-large Councilmember Derek Green, said Tuesday morning that Kenney should resign, saying that while he’s empathetic to the mayor, chief executives can’t express defeat.
“This is a position that people choose to run for and people are looking for leadership in times of crisis,” Green said. “[Kenney] said in his statement he wants to be happy. That’s what he said. This is his opportunity to be happy again.”
Councilmember Allan Domb — who is also considering a run for mayor — piled on, saying Kenney should resign because his comments amount to an abdication of his oath of office.
“His remarks indicated, to a degree, that he’s given up on the city and the people he’s supposed to serve every day,” Domb said. “Public leaders are sworn into office to serve those they represent. …You can’t have a leader who is the coach of the team and throws in the towel.”
Other potential candidates stopped short of calling for Kenney’s resignation but slammed his administration’s response to gun violence. Controller Rebecca Rhynhart, a frequent Kenney critic who has said that the city does not have strong executive leadership, on Twitter called the mayor’s statement “irresponsible.”
And at-large Councilmember Helen Gym, the progressive stalwart also counted among potential mayoral candidates, said in a statement that “Jim Kenney may be defeated but this city won’t be,” later tweeting that the “most offensive part of the Mayor’s remarks last night are not about feeling defeated, but the implication that he doesn’t have to care when he’s not in office.”
She added: “Put your big boy pants on and get to work!”
Kenney’s middle-of-the-night comments stood in contrast to messages tweeted out from his official account minutes later, where he wrote that his administration would “continue to do everything we can to combat our city’s gun violence.”
“I love this city,” the tweet said, “and as Mayor, there’s nothing more I want than to help solve this problem and keep our residents and visitors safe.”
Kenney’s admission that he’s looking forward to not doing this job anymore was in some ways unsurprising coming from a term-limited mayor who has appeared increasingly isolated and unengaged in his second term.
It was also illustrative of just how fed up he is with the surge of shootings in Philadelphia that began in 2020 and led to last year being the city’s deadliest in recorded history.
But Kenney also often places blame with the GOP-led state legislature, the national political environment, and society writ large. After a mass shooting last month left three people dead and 11 others wounded on South Street, he appeared in public for the first time two days later after flying home from a conference in Reno, Nev. He said that without stronger gun regulations at the state and federal levels, the proliferation of firearms in the city will continue.
“I’m not passing the buck to the legislature or the U.S. Congress, but it really does make it more difficult,” he said last month.
After the police shooting late Monday night, Kenney also blamed a recent Supreme Court decision that struck down a New York law intended to limit the public carry of guns.
“We live in America, and we have the Second Amendment, and we have the Supreme Court of the United States telling everybody they can carry a gun wherever they want,” he said. “We have to come to grips with what this country is about right now. We had a beautiful day out there today except for some nitwit … who has a gun and probably shouldn’t have had it.”
That sentiment was echoed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted that Democrats “cannot make promises, hector people to vote, and then refuse to use our full power,” ticking through a list of potential actions the party could take, including moving to expand the Supreme Court, opening abortion clinics on federal lands and repealing the Hyde Amendment.
Days later, Vice President Kamala Harris pushed back on that frustration in front of a room full of donors, defending Biden’s urging to vote in November: “I know some people are saying, ‘stop talking to us about the elections. We know.’ Don’t trivialize the significance. We can’t afford to,” because Democrats’ margins in Congress are razor-thin.
A big step in defusing the disagreement came when Biden confirmed last week that he would support a carveout to the Senate filibuster rules in order to codify in federal law the same access to abortion that was previously protected by Roe v. Wade. That move was a “step in the right direction,” said Carmel Pryor, senior communications director of the Alliance for Youth Action.
“However, ensuring momentum in the fight for control of Congress requires more action,” Pryor continued. “There’s a lot of talk about Roe strengthening the multigenerational coalition and, sure, there’s potential, but we need to see action taken now. This is an emergency that can’t wait until November.”
To be clear, the chances of a filibuster exception actually coming to pass are slim. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) both indicated they don’t plan on backing such a carveout.
Even so, Democrats said this kind of “political theater” is what voters, especially Gen Z, need to see to “value signal” that they’re “willing to fight for them,” said Terrance Woodbury, a Democratic pollster. He cited Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to bus migrants from the Texas border to Washington, D.C., in the absence of federal action on immigration, calling it an example of a vivid action that effectively riles up the Republican base. Democrats, Woodbury continued, could be considering their own version of such attention-grabbing actions now.
“Can you imagine seeing hundreds of mobile clinics deployed from Washington to [the] states?” Woodbury added.
Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who focuses on Latino voters, a demographic group that skews far younger than most racial groups, echoed those concerns, noting that he’s “found in focus groups that just saying, ‘[I’m] fighting for it,’ is not enough any more.”
“They are tired of us saying, ‘we’re fighting,’ but not delivering shit. What can you do tangibly to make a difference to do something about this?” Rocha continued. “We are good at bringing a policy book to a fist fight, and I worry about young people not showing up to vote because of it.”
This is a uniquely important challenge for Democrats hoping to mobilize voters under 30, who were a critical part of the party’s coalition that flipped the House in 2018 and retook the Senate and White House in 2020. Not only did three-quarters of them say abortion should be generally legal, 30 percent said it should be legal in all cases — which represents a yawning generational gap compared to other age groups, according to Pew Research. The organization’s polling shows that 54 percent of voters over 65 said abortion should be legal, by contrast.
Woodbury pointed to last year’s Virginia elections as a warning to Democrats, if they fail to activate young voters. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin won a state that backed Biden by a 10-point margin, in part, because “a bunch of Biden voters stayed home, and the electorate was 12 percent whiter and 8 percent older,” Woodbury said.
“In every battleground state in America, if on the day after Election Day in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, the electorate is 12 percent whiter and 8 percent older, then we’ve lost all of them,” he continued. “I’m afraid [young voters are] growing so cynical that they’re just going to find other ways of expressing their discontent like protest, but not voting.”
But there are signs that voters under 30 will still show up in November, despite their frustration. They’ve already made a habit of it by showing up at historic levels in back-to-back national elections. In polling, they are still indicating a high level of interest in participating, according to the Harvard Youth poll, the biggest longitudinal study of young people.
“I think Gen Z participates [in 2022], period, and they can have an even greater impact than anyone ever considered if this righteous anger is properly channeled through a coordinated and localized strategy to make things right,” said John Della Volpe, director of the Harvard Youth poll, who advised Biden during the 2020 general election campaign. “Now, that’s a big if.”
Activists also argue that abortion is one of only several issues that has fostered disappointment with slow or less expansive executive responses from the Biden administration, including student loan debt and climate change.
“They need to get caught trying,” said Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run For Something, a Democratic organization that recruits and supports down-ballot candidates. “I think that is going to be really important for Gen Z. If the argument is, give us two more senators and we’ll pass and codify Roe v. Wade — give us a reason to trust you.”
A handwritten letter from Brittney Griner was delivered to the White House on Monday morning, according to the Griner family, who provided excerpts to reporters. In her letter, the imprisoned WNBA star pleaded with the president not to forget her, and said her already deep appreciation for Independence Day has taken on new meaning this year.
“I’m terrified I might be here forever,” wrote Griner, who has been detained in Russia since mid-February. “On the 4th of July, our family normally honors the service of those who fought for our freedom, including my father who is a Vietnam War Veteran. It hurts thinking about how I usually celebrate this day because freedom means something completely different to me this year.”
Griner, whose trial began last week, was arrested at a Moscow airport in February after Russia claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage. A Russian judge ordered Griner, the Phoenix Mercury center who played in Russia during the WNBA off-season, to remain in custody for the trial’s duration.
WNBA basketball superstar Brittney Griner arrives to a hearing at the Khimki Court, outside Moscow on June 27, 2022.
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images
In her personal plea, Griner urged Mr. Biden to free all U.S. captives. “I realize you are dealing with so much,” she wrote, “But please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home.”
Griner noted in the letter that she voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, the first time she voted. “I believe in you. I still have so much good to do with my freedom that you can help restore,” she wrote.
While some supporters back a prisoner swap, Griner’s detention and trial come at a low point in U.S.-Russia relations amid the war in Ukraine.
“We believe the Russian Federation is wrongfully detaining Brittney Griner. President Biden has been clear about the need to see all U.S. nationals who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad released, including Brittney Griner. The U.S. government continues to work aggressively – using every available means — to bring her home,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement on Monday. “The President’s team is in regular contact with Brittney’s family and we will continue to work to support her family.”
Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and family had no further comment on the letter.
CNN’s Joe Sutton, Shawn Nottingham, Chuck Johnston, Curt Devine, Eric Levenson, Claudia Dominguez, Melissa Alonso, Brynn Gingras, Steve Almasy, Jeff Winter, Yahya Abou-Ghazala, David Williams and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.
At one point Monday, Jillian Smith was the only protester in the area. Smith is the manager at Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre in Highland Square, one of the few Black-owned bookstores in Ohio. She said the bookstore’s other employees would be joining her later.
“We specialize in carrying Black writers and marginalized writers … those books are what we need to be reading right now because those are the books that are teaching white people to unlearn (false narratives).”
Protest at Mayor Dan Horrigan’s home
That afternoon it seemed like “everybody” was outside of Mayor Dan Horrigan’s home. At least 100 armed and unarmed people were at the protest, and at least two of them were arrested. Protest organizers were making plans to bail them out of jail once the march came to an end.
The protest was organized by The Freedom Black Led Organizing Collaborative (BLOC), a local organization that aims to build Black political power and to equip the Black community with capacity-building tools on civic education, civic engagement, campaign management and leadership development.
At first protesters congregated at the intersection of Tallmadge Avenue and North Howard Street, then made their way down Howard Street to Horrigan’s home. They then returned to the Family Dollar Store on Howard Street, where the The Freedom BLOC’s executive director, Raymond Greene, gave a speech.
Evening crowd dispersed before curfew
Around 7:30 p.m. Monday, the scene was peaceful as about 75 people were gathered at the Justice Center just 90 minutes before a city-ordered downtown curfew was to go into effect.
“We’re tired of being murdered,” said MJ Ross, an 18-year-old Akron resident. “We will escalate if our demands are not met.”
Those demands, issued by Freedom BLOC on Saturday, include action items such as prosecuting the involved officers and installing dash cameras in every police vehicle. Ross said they are looking for nonviolent ways to increase pressure on the city, but said they will not “lay down and take it.”
Police surveilled the scene from a nearby rooftop as other officers inside geared up. Protesters taunted the cops on the roof, telling them to jump and calling them “guilty murderers.”
As 9 p.m. drew nearer, protesters were increasingly disgruntled about the impending curfew. One man, who did not give his name, said, “It’s the Fourth of July and they’re (expletive) all over the First Amendment. How patriotic.”
Around 8:15, one organizer gave a final warning to the crowd.
“Anyone who does not feel comfortable getting arrested, this is your chance to leave,” he told the crowd. Several others passed out notecards with information for a bail fund and a lawyer.
The crowd began to splinter as about half of them left. Others passed out makeshift shields constructed from a steel barrel lid and cardboard.
“What’s one night in jail when we’re already in cages?” said 23-year-old Winter Carter. “As a Black woman, I already move through the world with a target on my back.”
As the numbers dwindled, more people began to leave.
By 9 p.m., the crowd had totally dispersed.
Despite an empty High Street about 50 officers in riot gear stepped outside the justice center and lined up for several minutes before returning inside at the time of curfew.
One officer made an announcement that any non-media professionals needed to vacate the area or they would be subject to arrest.
Contact Beacon Journal reporter Abbey Marshall at amarshall1@gannett.com and Tawney Beans at tbeans@gannett.com.
More than eight hours after firing a “high-powered rifle” from a rooftop onto a crowd attending Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade, killing six people and wounding dozens in one of the worst mass shootings in Illinois history, a gunman suspected of causing the carnage was pulled over peacefully on U.S. 41 in Lake Forest.
At 6:45 p.m. Monday, the Highland Park police said a “person of interest” — identified as Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III, 22 — had been “taken into custody without incident” on U.S. 41 at Westleigh Road in Lake Forest.
The arrest came after he was spotted by a North Chicago police officer and following a short chase. Crimo was taken to the Highland Park police station, police Chief Lou Jogmen said.
Christopher Covelli of the Lake County sheriff’s office and the Lake County major crimes task force said authorities were using the terms “suspect” and “person of interest” interchangeably.
As of 9 p.m., no charges had been filed, and the police gave no indication of what the motive for the shootings might have been.
As news of the arrest spread, people began driving by the Highland Park police station and expressing their thanks to officers, yelling “thank you” and “good job.”
Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III, 22.
Highland Park police department
Stacy Shaulman, a lifelong Highland Park resident, was among a few dozen people who gathered outside the police station to await Crimo’s arrival.
“It’s been a horrific day,” Shaulman said. “I’m glad they got him. And, unfortunately, he’s a Highland Park kid, and people knew his family. His family has been around a long time.”
The shooter used “a high-powered rifle” that has been recovered, said Covelli, who said the gunman fired from a rooftop. “He was very discreet and very difficult to see.”
He called the crime “very random, very intentional.”
It appeared that the gunman had used an “unsecured” ladder to climb to the rooftop, Covelli said.
Authorities said the ownership history of the rifle was being examined by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Victims range in age from 8 to 85
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said five people were dead at the scene, all adults, and another died at a hospital. It wasn’t clear how old the sixth victim was. All of the victims have been identified, she said.
Dozens of the injured were taken to Highland Park Hospital, Lake Forest Hospital and Evanston Hospital. The “vast majority” were treated for gunshot wounds, though some “sustained injuries as a result of the ensuing chaos at the parade,” according to NorthShore University Health Systems, which owns the Highland Park and Evanston hospitals.
At Highland Park Hospital, Dr. Brigham Temple said 25 of the 26 people treated there were gunshot victims and that 19 of them had been treated and sent home.
Temple said they ranged in age from 8 years old to 85. About “four or five” of them are children, he said. One child was transported from there to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, and another was transferred to Evanston Hospital.
Dr. Brigham Temple gives an update outside of Highland Park Hospital about the 26 victims who were treated there.
Brian Rich / Sun-Times
The injuries varied. “Some of them were minor,” Temple said. “Some of them were much more severe.”
“It breaks your heart to see innocents wounded,” said Dr. Mark Talamonti, a surgeon who was among those treating the injured.
Shots fired ‘in rapid succession’
At the parade scene, one witness said he counted more than 20 shots.
Miles Zaremski, a Highland Park resident, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “I heard 20 to 25 shots, which were in rapid succession. So it couldn’t have been just a handgun or a shotgun.”
Zaremski said he saw “people in that area that got shot,” including “a woman covered with blood …. She did not survive.”
Monday’s Fourth of July parade was the first in Highland Park since before the pandemic.
As panicked paradegoers fled the parade route on Central Street in downtown Highland Park, they left behind chairs, baby strollers and blankets as they sought cover, not knowing just what happened.
Adrienne Drell, a former Sun-Times reporter, said she was sitting on a curb along Central Avenue watching the parade when she saw members of the Highland Park High School marching band start to run.
“Go to Sunset,” Drell said she heard the students shout, directing people to nearby Sunset Foods.
A man picked her up off the curb and urged her to get out, Drell said.
“There’s panic in the whole town,” she said. “Everyone is just stunned beyond belief.”
She ran across to a nearby parking lot with other people who had been watching the parade.
“It was a quiet, peaceful, lovely morning, people were enjoying the parade,” Drell said. “Within seconds, to have that peacefulness suddenly ripped apart, it’s scary. You can’t go anywhere, you can’t find peace. I think we are falling apart.”
Terrified paradegoers fled Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade after shots were fired, leaving behind their belongings as they sought safety.
Lynn Sweet / Sun-Times
Eric Trotter, 37, who lives blocks from the shooting, echoed that sentiment.
“I felt shocked,” Trotter said. “How could this happen in a peaceful community like Highland Park.”
Chaos, and a frantic search for family members
As police cars sped by on Central Avenue, sirens blaring, Alexander Sandoval, 39, sat on a bench and cried. He’d gotten up before 7 a.m. to set up lawn chairs and a blanket in front of the main stage of the parade. He lives within walking distance from there, so he went home to have breakfast with his son, partner and stepdaughter before going back for the parade.
Hours later, he said he and his family ran after hearing the gunfire, afraid for their lives.
“We saw the Navy’s marchers and float pass by, and, when I first heard the gunshots, I thought it was them saluting the flag and shooting blanks,” Sandoval said. “But then I saw people starting to run, and the shots kept going. We started running.”
He said that, in the chaos, he and his partner Amairani Garcia ran in different directions, he with his 5-year-old son, Alex, she with her 6-year-old daughter, Melani.
“I grabbed my son and tried to break into one of the local buildings, but I couldn’t,” Sandoval said. “The shooting stopped. I guess he was reloading. So I kept running and ran into an alley and put my son in a garbage dumpster so he could be safe.”
Then, he said he ran in search of the rest of his family and saw bodies in pools of blood on the ground.
“I saw a little boy who was shot being carried away,” Sandoval said. “It was just terror.”
He found his partner and stepdaughter, safe, inside a McDonald’s nearby.
“This doesn’t happen here,” he said. “It shouldn’t happen anywhere.”
Don Johnson, 76. who lives about two blocks from the shooting scene, thought at first the gunfire was a car backfiring. He said he ran with several other people to a nearby BP gas station and described the scene as “surreal.”
“It’s just a terrible thing,” he said. “I never would’ve thought this would’ve happened in downtown Highland Park.”
Johnson said his daughter lives in Chicago with her son and that he’s been urging them to move to Highland Park, telling her recently, “It’s safe.”
Now, he said, it’s clear that “it can happen anywhere.”
David Goldenberg, the Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, was among those at the parade. He’d gone early to set up chairs for his family along the parade route. He said he ended up moving their chairs to be closer to friends.
If not for that, Goldenberg said, “We would have been awfully close” to the shooting.
“It was chaotic,” he said. “Those sorts of things that you hear about — those split-second moments accounting for everyone in your family as people are yelling, ‘There’s a shooter! There’s a gun!’ ”
He said he knows of an adult who was killed, though he declined to discuss details.
Meg Coles drove from Atlanta with her 11- and 13-year-old sons to visit her sister-in-law for the Fourth of July, a family tradition.
“I just tried to explain to them that this is rare and probably won’t happen again,” said Coles, whose family was sitting about two blocks away along the parade route when the shooting happened.
But they weren’t buying it, she said: “I think it’s going to take them awhile.”
Sisters Christina Sendick, 20, and Angela Sendick, 22, showed up late for the parade, as people ran, some screaming, others bleeding. They grew up near Waukesha, Wisconsin, where someone drove a sport-utility vehicle into a Christmas parade crowd last November, killing six people and injuring 62 others.
“It’s just crazy no one can figure out how to put a stop to all this,” Angela Sendick said.
Pritzker: Mass shootings an American tradition
Speaking in Highland Park Monday evening, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said: “If you are angry today, I’m here to tell you to be angry.
“I’m furious that yet more innocent lives were taken by gun violence. I’m furious that their loved ones are forever broken by what took place today.I’m furious that children and their families have been traumatized. I’m furious that this is happening in communities all across Illinois and America. While we celebrate the Fourth of July just once a year, mass shootings have become our weekly — yes, weekly — American tradition.”
In a written statement, President Joe Biden said: “Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.”
Former Obama White House adviser David Alexrod tweeted that someone he knew was at the parade, writing: “A friend took his kids to July 4th Parade in Highland Park today. His son has special needs. When shots rang out, they ran for their lives, the dad pushing his grown son’s wheelchair —which at one point tumbled over. On America’s day, what has become a sickeningly American story.”
A friend took his kids to July 4th Parade in Highland Park today. His son has special needs. When shots rang out, they ran for their lives, the dad pushing his grown son’s wheelchair–which at one point tumbled over. On America’s day, what has become a sickeningly American story.
After Crimo’s arrest, across the street from a mobile command center that the police had set up, Jerry Felsenthal, who’s lived in Highland Park for 32 years, said he worries that, with so many guns on the streets, there will be more mass shootings.
“It’s going to happen again,” Felsenthal said. “It’s inevitable.”
Contributing: Zack Miller, Frank Main, Mitchell Armentrout, Michael Loria
Panicked crowds were left scattering after two police officers were shot near Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway as thousands attended a 4th of July concert and fireworks show Monday night.
One officer sustained a graze wound to the head and the other a gunshot wound to the right shoulder, Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said just after midnight Tuesday. Both were treated and released from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, she said.
A photo supplied to NBC10 by John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 union, showed a bullet lodged in an officer’s cap. Inside the cap was a memorial card for a Philadelphia police chaplain who recently died.
“It is miraculous the fact that the round stopped in his hat,” Outlaw said.
The officer grazed in the head is a 36-year-old PPD highway patrol officer and the other is a 44-year-old Montgomery County Sheriffs’ deputy, the commissioner said. Both were part of the security detail for the festival, she said.
The gunman was not immediately arrested or identified. It was unclear if the officers were targeted or if they were struck during “celebratory gunfire” amid 4th of July festivities, Outlaw said.
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“The good news is that both officers have since been treated and released, and what really could have been a chaotic scene or a catastrophic scene wasn’t today,” she said.
The gunfire broke out around 9:47 p.m. near the Philadelphia Museum of Art during the finale of the 16-day Wawa Welcome America festival as throngs of people watched a fireworks show following a concert headlined by Jason Derulo on the parkway, police said.
The shots hit the officers along the 2500 block of Spring Garden Street, behind where the concert took place, Outlaw said. Various people could be seen running from the area. Police instructed people in surrounding buildings to shelter in place.
“I didn’t hear the shots, but the cops were like, ‘Run, run, run,’” one woman told NBC10.
NBC10 had various reporters in the area covering the festival.
She said she helped three people onto the stage and they took cover behind a DJ podium. A man speaking with the director of the show then instructed them to stay there until it was safe enough to “rush back” to their vehicles, Uko said.
NBC10’s Tim Furlong said he saw a “wave of people” running from near Eakins Oval down the parkway. Several children were crying during what were moments of confusion from the crowd and police officers at the scene, Furlong said.
Fellow reporter Karen Hua reported laying in the dirt inside a tent with other people.
“We made a fort around us with catering equipment. Everyone is crying or screaming,” Hua tweeted. “It has just been a night of absolute horror and terror,” Hua said later.
“We are the most armed country in world history and we’re one of the least safest. So, until Americans decide that they want to give up the guns and give up the opportunity to get guns, we’re going to have this problem,” he said.
The Philadelphia Police Department instructed those looking to reunite with loved ones to meet at 1901 Vine St. in front of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Anyone else was asked to stay away. The center closed at 1 a.m.
Around 11 p.m., police officers using flashlights could be seen scouring an area from near 19th Street and the parkway up to Eakins Oval, a search that was not immediately fruitful.
Various people sought shelter at the Parke Town Apartments, which are just off the parkway. They asked residents to “stay calm” during police activity “on-site, throughout the community.” All towers of the complex were on lockdown “until we have further information available,” the company said in an email.
Residents were later allowed back in. Police officers at the complex told an NBC10 producer that their search there ended up having nothing to do with the shooting.
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