MASS SHOOTINGAnother Mass Shooting Leaves U.S. Bracing for More

By Jeff Seldin

This week’s Independence Day massacre in a Chicago suburb is highlighting the challenge now facing U.S. law enforcement and homeland security officials — an environment in which almost any public event could come under attack with few, if any, signals for authorities to detect in advance.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been warning for months of a “dynamic and complex” threat environment, most recently in a National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin last month, cautioning a variety of factors from personal grievances to current events could spark the next attack, with public gatherings a likely target.

Yet even armed with that knowledge, authorities were not able to see any signs or find any evidence that might have allowed them to stop the mass shooting at the Highland Park, Illinois July Fourth parade which killed seven people and wounded at least 30 others.

“The shooting appears to be completely random,” Chris Covelli, a spokesperson for the Lake County sheriff’s office, told reporters Tuesday.

“We have no information to suggest at this point it was racially motivated, motivated by religion or any other protected status,” he said.

What investigators are finding, however, is a trail of evidence, mostly on social media, that suggests the suspect, 21-year-old Robert Crimo III, was veering toward violence.

Crimo, an aspiring musician with the stage name Awake the Rapper, recently posted videos and songs, some ominous and violent, on social media sites.

Officials said Crimo had also been brought to the attention of police twice — in April 2019 for an attempted suicide and in September of that same year for threatening family members.

Additionally, law enforcement officials said it appears Crimo was planning the attack on the parade for weeks, buying a rifle, picking out a location and planning an escape.

So how did the Crimo fly under the radar?

Some terrorism and security experts point out the suspect did not appear to subscribe to any sort of easily recognizable ideology.

“While it’s too early to say what motivated the Highland shooter, his scattered online profile certainly points to his presence in some disturbingly violent and nihilistic spaces,” according to Amarnath Amarasingam, a terrorism researcher at Queen’s University School of Religion in Ontario, Canada.

“A lot of quite obscure internet subcultures are pushing young people towards the breaking point,” Amarasingam told VOA. “These spaces are deliberately designed to disconnect individuals from reality, lower their inhibitions to engage in violence.”