Alleged shooter in Highland Park July 4 parade attack charged with 7 counts of murder in ‘premeditated and calculated attack’

CHICAGO — Prosecutors on Tuesday filed murder charges against the man suspected of firing upon crowds gathered for a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park on Monday morning, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 30.

Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III, 21, is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder in what Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart called a “premeditated and calculated attack.” Crimo was apprehended late Monday afternoon following an hourslong search involving more than 100 law enforcement agencies.

Rinehart said he anticipates dozens more charges as the investigation continues.

Crimo’s attorney Thomas Durkin declined to comment Tuesday, citing the early stage in the proceedings and noting that he has had limited contact with his client.

Details about the attack and the background of the alleged shooter emerged throughout Tuesday, as the Highland Park community continued grieving the losses. Authorities said that in 2019 police were called to Crimo’s home after he threatened to “kill everyone,” but he wasn’t arrested.

Crimo planned the parade attack for weeks, police and prosecutors allege, then climbed a fire escape ladder to the roof of a building and fired as the Independence Day parade was in full swing. He dressed as a woman in order to evade detection, according to Chris Covelli, a spokesman with the Lake County Major Crime Task Force.

After firing dozens of shots, Crimo exited the roof, dropped the rifle, slipped into the crowd and went to his mother’s house, Covelli said. The gun that was used in the attack was purchased legally in Illinois by Crimo, authorities said.

Parade attendees described hearing a barrage of bullets while watching floats and marchers on the street. People grabbed children and ran, taking cover in nearby shops. A tuba player recalled watching people running in panic while his band played.

In all, about 45 people were either killed or injured during the attack, authorities said.

Among the dead were Katherine Goldstein, 64, of Highland Park; Irina McCarthy, 35, of Highland Park; Kevin McCarthy, 37, of Highland Park; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63, of Highland Park; Stephen Straus, 88, of Highland Park; and Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78, of Morelos, Mexico. Officials have not yet released the name of the seventh victim.

“The Highland Park community, like so many before us, is devastated,” said Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering. “We know it will take time to heal.”

On Tuesday, officials described a sweeping investigation that involved speaking to witnesses and survivors, viewing footage from cellphones and surveillance cameras and an expedited trace on the weapon conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Investigators haven’t determined a motive, though Covelli said detectives have been “in discussions” with Crimo. No one else appears to have been involved in the shooting.

Investigators believe Crimo disguised himself as a woman in order to hide his facial tattoos and aid in his escape from the scene, according to Covelli.

After the shooting, Crimo walked to his mother’s house and borrowed her vehicle, Covelli said. There is no indication he shared anything about his alleged involvement in the shooting with his mother.

Following a police alert for the vehicle, an “alert member of community” saw it and called 911, Covelli said.

Before being captured, Crimo drove into Wisconsin and returned to the north suburbs, Covelli said.

After he was apprehended, officers found another rifle in the vehicle, Covelli said, which also appeared to have been legally purchased by Crimo. Three other weapons that were legally purchased were found in his Highwood home.

Investigators are asking members of the community to come forward with any video they may have of Crimo at the parade. They also are trying to identify a female witness who, on surveillance, appeared to see Crimo “drop an object inside of a red blanket” behind a Ross Cosmetics store near the shooting scene, Covelli said.

“The community has been absolutely terrific as it comes to reporting information they may have, things they may have witnessed, turning over video,” Covelli said.

Details on the original purchase of the weapon came from an expedited trace conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the wake of the shooting. The weapon has been described by authorities as “high powered.”

The expedited trace provided a “major lead” to investigators, according to Covelli.

He also told the Chicago Tribune that the FBI is sending in an expert team to reconstruct the shooting, which means items left along the parade route will likely remain for several days.

The full portrait of Crimo remained hazy Tuesday, though some details emerged. Rotering, the mayor, told the “Today” show she remembers being a Cub Scout leader when Crimo was a little boy, and she wondered what allegedly led him to the rooftop above the parade.

“(It’s) one of those things where you step back and you say, ‘What happened?’ ” she said. “How did somebody become this angry, this hateful to then take it out on innocent people who, literally, were just having a family day out?”

Crimo posted online videos under the name The Awake Rapper, some with chilling references to violence, including one that features footage of a young man in a bedroom and a classroom along with cartoons of a gunman and people being shot.

In September 2019, family members reported that Crimo threatened to “kill everyone” and that he had a collection of knives, Covelli said. Highland Park police responded to the home and removed 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from the home. Police notified Illinois State Police of the matter, but otherwise didn’t have probable cause to make an arrest, authorities said.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois State Police said that at that time, Crimo did not have a firearm owner’s identification card, required for the purchase of firearms, to revoke or review.

Earlier, in April 2019, police were called because Crimo had attempted suicide about a week earlier. Officers determined that the matter was being handled by mental health professionals.

Attorney Steve Greenberg, who is representing Crimo’s parents, said they are “heartbroken” and in shock. They have close ties to the community and many of the shooting victims are friends, Greenberg said.

“Imagine waking up in the morning knowing that there’s a real good chance that your son that you’ve raised, that you loved, that you nurtured through life, may spend the rest of his life in prison,” Greenberg said. “Imagine you wake up and you have a realization that this person that has taken so much of your life to raise them has done something like this. I think they’re in shock.”

Greenberg said Crimo’s parents did not monitor his online activities, and were not aware of some of the videos with disturbing imagery that Crimo apparently posted.

“There weren’t really any warning signs that the family saw. They don’t know of any reason why he would have done this,” he said. “These are very loving, caring and responsible parents, and if they had had concerns they would have expressed them.”

Public records indicate Crimo is the son of Bob Crimo, former owner of a Highland Park deli. The elder Crimo unsuccessfully ran against Rotering for the mayor’s job in 2019.

Karen Warner, spokeswoman for Township High School District 113, said Crimo attended Highland Park High School for his freshman year but left two days into his sophomore year.

Ethan Absler, 22, said he shared a gym class with Crimo and recalled him as alternatively reserved and disruptive. Once, he said, Crimo was suspended for plastering the school with stickers promoting his music, but Absler saw no sign of the violence Crimo now stands accused of committing.

“I was never worried about it,” he said. “The people I’m friends with, who had (other) classes with him, felt like he had some behavioral red flags but nothing that indicated he was violent or angry at the town or a specific group of people. It just seemed like classic bad school behavior.”

Matt Loarie, 23, said he frequently saw Crimo at the family deli, a popular hangout spot for kids in the suburb. As they grew up, though, Loarie said Crimo appeared troubled.

“I never even thought that would happen, but, I mean, the kid was kind of off,” Loarie said. “He seemed like he had some demons he was struggling with.”

With a shaking voice, the suspect’s uncle, Paul Crimo, expressed his condolences to those affected by the shooting.

“My thoughts and prayers go out to the families,” he said. “That’s from the bottom of my heart. I’m heartbroken, and I’ll probably be heartbroken forever.”

Other than the 2019 suicide attempt and alleged threat that prompted police to confiscate his knives and sword, Crimo’s record contains a 2016 tobacco possession violation in Mundelein that was disposed of with a fine and 90 days of court supervision.

Tech platforms rapidly erased Crimo’s online trail after the shooting, but enough was captured by the Tribune and other news organizations to create a disturbing but incomplete picture.

Much of Crimo’s content involves his fledgling musical career. He went by the performing name Awake The Rapper — “Awake” is tattooed above his left eyebrow — and Crimo’s uncle told WFLD-TV his nephew was “a YouTube rapper” and an artist.

Crimo’s music videos on YouTube are imbued with a morose and sometimes threatening mood, showing cartoons of a man shooting a rifle and bleeding figures. Some songs and lyrics posted on other sites contain incredibly violent imagery.

Crimo’s videos also showcase a symbol of interlocking triangles some observers compare to a rune adopted by a Finnish far-right group. But the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is still poring over Crimo’s online record, said its meaning, if any, remains unclear.

“While there are guesses that the symbol the suspect used is similar to some extremist symbols, we have not unearthed the personal meaning of this symbol,” said Rachel Carroll Rivas, senior research analyst with the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

Crimo’s politics are equally opaque. A Tribune photographer captured him at a 2020 Trump rally wearing a Where’s Waldo costume, but it’s not clear he was a genuine fan: One of his Twitter accounts shows that among dozens of entertainers, gamers and mainstream news sources, the only politicians he followed were Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

A musician who said on Twitter that he worked with Crimo until 2018 — and posted photos to prove it — said he did not know Crimo to be on the extreme right or left.

“I know that ... sounds really interesting. But it’s not the truth,” he wrote. “He was an isolated stoner who completely lost touch with reality.”

On Tuesday morning, downtown Highland Park was still littered with detritus left behind during the shooting. The parade route was lined with abandoned lawn chairs and strollers.

Some stunned residents tried to keep to normal routines, while bracing for more news of the dead and injured. Others picked up trash outside of the area still cordoned off by police.

In one case, officers let a sobbing woman through the police tape to retrieve a car seat.

Outside the Highland Park Police Department, two young girls wrote in multicolor chalk on the pavement: “Thank you first responders.”

Small memorials began emerging in the area on Tuesday. Samantha Lanty and Meghan Higginson, both 20, leaned under yellow crime scene and placed a bouquet of white flowers on the sidewalk. The women recalled attending the parade as a child, as well as growing up attending active shooter drills.

“How many events have to keep occurring before someone steps up to change something?” Lanty said.

Among the injured was Chicago Public Schools teacher Zoe Kolpack, who was shot in the femur while attending the parade with her husband, Stephen; their two young children; her parents; and Stephen’s family, according to family friend Samantha Whitehead, who is raising money for medical costs.

Whitehead said Stephen Kolpack and Zoe’s dad, Mike Joyce, were shot in the leg as well, while Stephen’s brother, Nicholas, was shot in the kneecap. The injuries are not life-threatening, and the Kolpack children were unharmed, Whitehead said.

Whitehead said Zoe’s mother, Nancy Joyce, grabbed the two small kids and hid in a nearby building for about 45 minutes, until they were given the all-clear.

Meanwhile, Zoe’s dad “was hovering (over) her and protecting her because she couldn’t move. And she just said that, like, people were just running past her, and she was just screaming, ‘help, help.’ She said she felt like it went on for like 30 minutes,” Whitehead said.

Whitehead had raised about $140,000 through GoFundMe as of Tuesday morning.

In a statement, CPS said it was “devastated to learn that one of our CPS teachers and her family members are among those who were injured in Monday’s mass shooting in Highland Park.” Zoe, who has worked for the district since 2017, teaches preschool at William Dever Elementary School on the Northwest Side. CPS said “support services will be available to support the Dever Elementary staff and students as needed.”

A block from the parade route, a group of men met for coffee near a Starbucks, where they’ve gathered every morning for 15 years. They had to bring their morning coffee from Dunkin’ because their store remained closed.

”We meet here every day to talk normally about fun stuff. Today is not so fun,” Highland Park resident Andrew Stone said. ”This is such a small community. We’re all going to know someone who was injured.”

The men tried to find out who among the people they knew was shot. A family friend took a bullet to the foot. A woman at the temple had been killed, they found out.

They argued over why it happened here, in the tight-knit community they once thought was safe. Across the table, Jim Terman said he had been watching the parade from the block where the shooting happened. He can’t stop thinking about it.

”It just runs through your mind,” he said.

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(Special correspondent Clifford Ward contributed to this story.)

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