On July 4, a parade gunman slipped past security of an Illinois “red flag” law: officials

The man accused of killing seven people at a July 4 parade in the Chicago area slipped past the safeguards of an Illinois “red flag” law designed to prevent people with violent tendencies from entering the state are attributed to get guns, officials said on Tuesday.

The revelations raise questions about the adequacy of the state’s “red flag” laws, even as a prosecutor hailed the system as “strong” during a news conference and filed seven first-degree murder charges against 21-year-old suspect Robert, E. Krimo III .

Sergeant Chris Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said earlier in the day Crimo legally purchased a total of five guns, including the suspected murder weapon, although he was caught twice for conduct that indicated he might harm himself or others.

The first instance was a 911 call in April 2019 in which Crimo had reported a suicide attempt, followed by a police visit in September of that year over alleged threats to “kill everyone” he had made against family members, Covelli said.

According to Covelli, police responding to the second incident confiscated a collection of 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from Crimo’s home in Highland Park, Illinois, the Chicago suburb where Monday’s shooting took place. But no arrest was made because authorities had no likely reason to take him into custody at the time, the sheriff’s sergeant said.

“There were no complaints signed by any of the victims,” ​​Covelli explained.

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Accused Illinois shooter faces seven counts of first-degree murder

Later Tuesday came a separate statement from Illinois State Police, reporting that the agency had received a report from Highland Park Police declaring Crimo a “clear and present danger” following the alleged threats against relatives in September 2019 became.

At the time, however, Crimo did not hold a government Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card that could be revoked or denied a pending FOID application. The state police’s involvement in the matter has thus ended, the agency said.

State police also said that no relative or anyone else was willing to “file a formal complaint” or “provide information about threats or mental health that would have enabled law enforcement to take additional action.”

Three months later, at the age of 19, Crimo applied for his first FOID card under his father’s patronage. However, because a firearms restraining order or other legal action had never been sought against Crimo, “there was insufficient basis to determine clear and present danger and deny the FOID request,” state police said.

Crimo has passed four background checks on purchasing his guns, all conducted in 2020 and 2021, well after the 2019 incidents that state police said drew police attention.

State police said the only crime identified in Crimo’s criminal history during background checks was unlawful possession of tobacco in 2016, and that “no reports of mental health bans” from health care providers have ever surfaced.

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The suspected gunman planned the attack “several weeks” before the July 4 shooting, police say

State police said when officers who visited the family home about Crimo’s alleged threats in September 2019 asked him “if he had any desire to harm himself or others,” and that “he replied ‘no.’ “.

“Additionally and importantly, the father claimed that the knives belonged to him and they were kept in[his son’s]closet for safekeeping,” state police said. “Based on this information, Highland Park Police returned the knives to the father later that afternoon.”

A number of U.S. politicians in both parties have pushed for broader passage and enforcement of “red flag” laws, which typically allow courts to issue injunctions that allow authorities to seize firearms from individuals or prevent them from purchasing weapons if they pose a significant risk to themselves or others.

But Reinhart, the prosecutor who charged Crimo on Tuesday, was at a loss to explain how Crimo could be allowed to legally acquire guns without the alleged 2019 threat and “clear and present danger” report raising “red flags.” -triggered measures of the state.

Congress last month passed a national gun reform bill that includes provisions to provide federal funding to states administering red flag laws.

— Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Highland Park, Illinois, writing and additional reporting, and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles