Highland Park parade shooter father Robert Crimo charged reckless conduct sponsored firearm ID card

The father of an Illinois man charged with killing seven people in a mass shooting at a July 4 parade in a Chicago suburb has been charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct, prosecutors have announced.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said Robert Crimo Jr. surrendered to police on Friday and will have a bond hearing Saturday.

Rinehart said the charges are based on Crimo Jr. sponsoring his then 19-year-old son’s application for a gun license in 2019.

‘Parents and guardians are in the best position to decide whether their teenagers should have a weapon,’ Rinehart said. ‘In this case, the system failed when Robert Crimo Jr. sponsored his son. He knew what he knew and he signed the form anyway.’

Rinehart wouldn’t further discuss what led his office to file the charges this week. Authorities have previously said the accused shooter, Robert Crimo III, attempted suicide by machete in April 2019 and in September 2019 was accused by a family member of making threats to ‘kill everyone.’

Robert Crimo Jr., pictured on Friday, after turning himself in. Crimo Jr. is the father of an Illinois man charged with killing seven people in a mass shooting at a July 4 parade in a Chicago suburb and has been charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct, prosecutors said

Prosecutors announced Friday that Crimo Jr., the father of the Illinois man charged with killing seven people in a mass shooting at a July 4 parade in a Chicago suburb, Robert E. Crimo III has been charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct

The charges are based on Crimo sponsoring his then 19-year-old son’s (pictured above) application for a gun license in 2019.

Both those reports came months before Crimo Jr. sponsored his son’s application in December 2019.

Chicago-area attorney George M. Gomez said that he was representing Robert Crimo Jr. in the newly announced criminal case. He described the charges as ‘baseless and unprecedented.’

‘This decision should alarm every single parent in the United States of America who according to the Lake County State´s Attorney knows exactly what is going on with their 19 year old adult children and can be held criminally liable for actions taken nearly three years later,’ the statement from Gomez said. ‘These charges are absurd and we will fight them every step of the way.

Gomez said Crimo Jr. ‘continues to sympathize and feel terrible for the individuals and families who were injured and lost loved ones,’ but the attorney called the charges ‘politically motivated and a distraction from the real change that needs to happen in this country.’

A grand jury in July indicted Robert Crimo III on 21 first-degree murder counts, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, representing the seven people killed and dozens wounded in the attack on a beloved holiday event in Highland Park.

Until Friday, Rinehart had refused to discuss whether the man’s parents could face charges connected to the killings.

Legal experts have said it’s rare for an accused shooter’s parent or guardian to face charges – in part because it’s difficult to prove such charges.

Highland Park shooter Robert Crimo appeared in court last month and flashed a peace sign as prosecutors revealed they had over 2,500 pages of evidence against him

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In one notable exception, a Michigan prosecutor last year filed involuntary manslaughter charges against the parents of Ethan Crumbley, a teen accused of fatally shooting four students at his high school. 

A January trial date in that case has been delayed while the state appeals court considers an appeal by the parents.

Robert Crimo Jr. has shown up at several pretrial hearings for his son this year, nodding in greeting when he son entered the courtroom shackled and flanked by guards. The father is a longtime resident of Highland Park and a familiar face around the city, where he was once a mayoral candidate and was well known for operating convenience stores.

Authorities have previously said that Illinois State Police reviewed Crimo III’s December 2019 gun license application and found no reason to deny it because he had no arrests, no criminal record, no serious mental health problems, no orders of protection and no other behavior that would disqualify him.

But following the parade shooting, public records showed that Crimo III attempted suicide by machete in April 2019, according to a police report obtained by The Associated Press that noted a ‘history of attempts.’

In media interviews after the shooting, Robert Crimo Jr. had said he did not expect to face charges and did not believe he did anything wrong by helping his son get a gun license through the state’s established process.

The alleged shooter, Robert Crimo III appeared in court last month for the first time since August and even flashed a peace sign towards prosecutors as they handed his defense 2,500 pages of evidence against him. 

Crimo has pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of first-degree murder, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery

Crimo was indicted on 117 felony counts for the deaths of seven people and dozens of injuries.

Despite the evidence, which includes audio and video recordings, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held without bail. 

Prosecutors have said Crimo admitted to the shooting once police arrested him.

Crimo’s defense lawyer, Anton Trizna, has not yet requested a trial for his client and said that based on the amount of evidence they needed to read and organize, there shouldn’t be another court date in the near future. 

Judge Victoria Rossetti set the next case management hearing for January 2023. 

He fled from the shooting disguised as a female and hid for eight hours before police spotted him driving on a highway and arrested him

He has pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of first-degree murder, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery.

The multiple first-degree murder charges allege Crimo intended to kill, caused death or great bodily harm and took action with a strong probability of causing death or great bodily harm on the seven people who died.

He has been named in multiple civil lawsuits that have been filed against him, his father who approved his gun license and the manufacturer of the gun he used, Smith and Wesson. 

Cops say Crimo opened fire from the rooftop of a local store, into a crowd who at first confused the sound of gunshots with Independence Day fireworks.

Many bystanders described multiple rounds being fired in quick succession, alleging they first confused the sound of gunshots with Independence Day fireworks.

Crimo dressed up as a woman to carry out the attack and was able to flee in the crowd because of the disguise, cops revealed.

After the attack, he fled among frightened paradegoers, pretending to be one of the victims, and went to his mother’s house.

Police said they do not think she knew that he was the shooter when he asked her for her car. 

She gave it to him and he fled the area, but only made it eight miles before an officer spotted him and made the arrest. 

Crimo allegedly used an assault rifle to cause devastating injuries to the unsuspecting paradegoers.

He legally purchased the two rifles along with other guns in the local area, despite a ban on assault rifles in Highland Park, buying them at multiple locations. 

‘The people who were gone were blown up by that gunfire,’ said Dr. David Baum, a long time obstetrician in Highland Park who attended the parade.

‘The horrific scene of some of those bodies is unspeakable for the average person,’ he added.

This is the moment Crimo was finally arrested, eight hours after unleashing terror at the parade in Highland Park

The gunman opened fire at 10.14am, barely 15 minutes into the parade. He then fled the scene and hid throughout the day before eventually being arrested

The 22-year-old owned multiple weapons, including two rifles – one that was allegedly used in the attack and another that was found in his vehicle when he was arrested at 6.30pm the same night. 

Among the seven victims was also synagogue teacher Jacki Sundheim, a married mother, and grandfather Nicolas Toledo, 78.

Also killed were Irina McCarthy, 35, and her husband Kevin McCarthy, 37, whose two-year-old orphaned son was pulled from underneath his father’s body. 

The family of an eight-year-old boy have since confirmed their son was ‘paralyzed from the waist down’ and will likely never walk again after being shot during the Highland Park parade attack.

Cooper Roberts’ spinal cord was severed during the attack. His twin brother and mother were also wounded in the incident.

‘It’s going to be a new normal for him moving forward,’ family spokesman Anthony Loizzi said in a statement earlier this month. ‘It sounds (like) he’ll have significant issues moving forward, especially with walking.’

Horror on Independence Day: A police officer bows his head in grief next to abandoned strollers and chairs after a shooting that killed seven people in Highland Park, Ill.

Law enforcement officers inspect chairs and belongings left behind at the scene of the mass shooting in Highland Park 

Due to the severity of his spinal cord injury, doctors have now confirmed that it is unlikely Cooper will ever walk again. 

Police do not yet know exactly what the motive for the killing spree was, but they previously confirmed Crimo had a fixation on the numbers 47 – the inverse of 7/4, the date of July 4th. 

Lake County Major Crime Task Force Deputy Chief Chris Covelli said after Crimo’s court appearance earlier this month: ‘His motivation isn’t necessarily clear, I don’t want to go into specifically what he told investigators, however he had some type of affinity towards the number 4 and 7, and inverse 7 and 4.’

Victims of the Highland Park July Fourth shooting 

Seven people were killed and over 40 wounded when Robert Crimo fired an AR-15 style rifle into the crowd at a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, just north of Chicago, Illinois.

The seven killed were:

Stephen Straus, 88 – Katherine Goldstein, 64 – Jacki Sundheim, 63 – Nicholas Toledo Zaragoza, 78 – Eduardo Uvaldo, 69 – husband and wife Irina and Kevin McCarthy, 35 and 37. 

Irina and Kevin McCarthy, 35 and 37, were both killed in the massacre. Their two-year-old son, Aiden, was pulled from beneath his father’s body

Nicolas Toledo, 76, a grandfather who had been visiting from Mexico, and Jacki Sondheim, 63, a longtime staffer at North Shore Congregation Israel, were both killed in the massacre

Irina and Kevin McCarthy were the parents of a two-year-old boy, Aiden, who was orphaned by the shooting. The boy was pulled from beneath his father’s body by paradegoers. 

Nicolas Toledo was the first victim to be identified. He was a grandfather from Mexico visiting his family in Highland Park. His family said his blood splattered over them when he was shot in the head as he sat in his wheelchair.

Toledo had not wanted to attend the parade, his granddaughter told the New York Times, but his family convinced him to attend with them. 

Another victim, Jacki Sundheim, was a longtime teacher at the North Shore Congregation Israel synagogue. She is survived by her husband Bruce and daughter Leah, the Times of Israel reported. 

‘There are no words sufficient to express the depth of our grief for Jacki’s death,’ the synagogue said in a statement.

Katherine Goldstein (left) was among the people killed in the Highland Park parade mass shooting on July 4

Steve Straus, 88, (left) was among the seven people who were killed during the Highland Park Fourth of July parade massacre. Eduardo Uvaldo, 65, (right) died on Wednesday. Family said he had been shot in the arm and back of the head

Eduardo Uvaldo died several days after the shooting from gunshot wounds to the arm and head. His wife, Maria, was hit in the head by fragments and his grandson received a gunshot wound to the arm, but both recovered.

Victim Katherine Goldstein’s daughter, Cassie, described how her mother was shot in the chest and fell down dead in front of her. 

‘He shot her in the chest, and she fell down. And I knew she was dead,’ Cassie told NBC Nightly News after the shooting, ‘So I just told her that I loved her, but I couldn’t stop because he was still shooting everyone next to me.’