Highland Park shooting suspect: What we know about the man in custody – National

A NOTICE: This story contains disturbing images and content. Please read at your own discretion.

Robert E. Crimo III, the person of interest in a mass shooting at a July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, was an aspiring rapper whose videos and social media posts featured violent and threatening imagery, often depicting mass shootings and murders glorified.

Crimo, 21, was arrested on Monday after an hours-long manhunt when police stopped him after a brief chase. Police didn’t say what specific information led them to Crimo, but Chris Covelli, spokesman for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, told reporters Tuesday that police believe “Crimo planned this attack several weeks in advance.” Has”.

Covelli also told reporters that Crimo dressed in women’s clothing to distract from his facial tattoos.

“During the attack, Crimo wore women’s clothing and investigators believe he did so to hide his facial tattoos and identity to help him escape,” Covelli said of the 21-year-old in custody.

0:39
“No information” suggesting the July 4 shooting was motivated by race, religion and police

Police said the gunman’s attack came from a roof over the parade route and shot into a crowd that had gathered to see the Independence Day parade. Police believe the gunman used a ladder in an alleyway to climb onto the roof.

“After the attack, Crimo left the roof, dropped his rifle and mingled with the crowd and escaped,” Covelli said.

“He blended right in with everyone else as they walked around, almost like he was an innocent bystander too.”

From there, Covelli says, Crimo allegedly walked to his mother’s house, borrowed her car, and attempted to leave town.

Neighbors told CBS News that Crimo lives in a house with his father and uncle. As of this writing, he has not been formally charged in the shooting that killed six and injured dozens more.

Crimo, who goes by the name Bobby, was a rapper with the stage name Awake the Rapper who posted dozens of videos and songs on social media, some with menacing, dark language.

In an animated video, which has since been removed from YouTube, Crimo raps about armies “walking in the dark” while a drawing of a man aiming a gun appears, a body on the ground, and another figure with their hands raised inside the distance. A later image shows a close-up of a chest with blood pouring from it and another of police cars arriving with the gunman holding his hands up.

In another video, in which Crimo appears in a classroom wearing a black bike helmet, he says he’s “like a sleepwalker — I know what I have to do,” adding, “Everything led to it. Nothing can stop me, not even myself.”

According to NBC News, the YouTube account that hosted his previously public-facing videos was down as of Monday night.

After Monday’s shooting, 26 patients with gunshot wounds were taken to Highland Park Hospital, according to Dr. Bringham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness at NorthShore University Health Center.

Their ages range from eight to 85, he said, and include four or five children. Some are in critical condition, including a child, and 19 have been treated and discharged.

Among those killed were five adults who died at the scene, while another person of unknown age was taken to the hospital and died there, according to Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek. Authorities are in the process of notifying their families.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering told CNN that she believes the assault rifle used by the alleged gunman was legally purchased. She said her office is waiting for authorities to bring charges against “the individual.” Covelli, also Tuesday, said based on the information they have so far, it appears the rifle was legally purchased in Illinois.

In conversation with todayRotering said it appeared that several of the suspect’s online posts “reflected a plan and desire to commit carnage well in advance.”

“And it’s one of those things where you take a step back and say, what happened? How did someone get so angry and hateful?” she said.

“To then take it out on innocent people who literally just had a family day?”

NBC News reports that Crimo has been active on Discord, an online app that allows users to send and share messages, media, and files. According to the outlet, Crimo hosted his own channel on the app, which featured a politics forum filled with “nihilistic political memes.”

NBC News also reports that the suspect frequently posted on a server that shared graphic depictions of death, suicide and murder. Last week, in his last post before the shooting, he shared a video of a beheading.

2:57
‘This is gun country’: Philadelphia mayor angered after shooting near Fourth of July celebrations

Rotering tells today that she did not believe that Crimo had been linked to previous crimes or was known to police prior to the shooting.

“Whether it’s Buffalo, NY, Uvalde, Texas, or Highland Park, Illinois, it’s incredible to me that that’s an acceptable part of who we are as a nation,” Rotering said, referring to a series of mass shootings in lately in the US

The suspect’s uncle, Paul Crimo, told CNN he doesn’t think his nephew has a job and was last employed at Panera Bread before the pandemic. He described his nephew as a “lonely, quiet person” who “keeps everything to himself.”

Police did not name a possible motive for the attack.

In a statement on the shooting, US President Joe Biden said: “Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has once again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day. As always, we are grateful to first responders and law enforcement on the ground.

“I will not give up the fight against the gun violence epidemic.”

— With files from Eric Stober and Sean Boynton of Global News

1:35
The US Senate is nearing passage of the gun reform bill weeks after tragedies involving two shootings

previous video

next video