Authorities revealed Tuesday afternoon that the suspect who allegedly shot dozens of people at a parade on Monday had a history of run-ins with law enforcement officials.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Christopher Covelli disclosed the information at a press conference after the 21-year-old dressed in drag and killed seven people and wounded more than a dozen others at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
The Daily Wire is not naming the suspect due to company policy about not giving notoriety to mass killers because studies suggest that the media’s coverage of mass shootings sparks more mass shootings.
“I’m going to relay some information from two prior instances that occurred here in Highland Park,” Covelli said. “The first was in April of 2019. An individual contacted Highland Park Police Department a week after learning of [the suspect] attempting suicide. This was a delayed report, so Highland Park still responded to the residence a week later, spoke with [the suspect], spoke with [the suspect’s] parents, and the matter was being handled by mental health professionals at that time, there was no law enforcement action to be taken. It was a mental health issue and handled by those professionals.”
“The second occurred in September of 2019,” Covelli continued. “A family member reported that [the suspect] said he was going to kill everyone and [the suspect] had a collection of knives. The police responded to his residence, the police removed 16 knives, a dagger, and a sword from [the suspect’s] home. At that time, there was no probable cause to arrest, there were no complaints that were signed by any of the victims. The Highland Park Police Department, however, did immediately notify the Illinois State Police of the incident.”
One of the suspect’s neighbors said that there were signs “for a long time” that something would happen. “There were always police cars at the house. The parents were arguing, fighting all the time.”
Jeremy Cahnmann, who ran an after-school sports program that the suspect attended, said that the suspect’s parents were a problem.
“I remember the parents more than him because they were kind of a problem,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of love in that family.”
“[The suspect’s mother] got into it once with one of the heads of the program, she was yelling,” he recalled. “It seemed like her kids were a nuisance to her.”
A previous version of this article said the suspect is 22-years-old. He is 21-years-old.
This article has been updated after publication to include additional information.