The father of the alleged gunman from the Highland Park mass shooting was charged with seven counts of reckless conduct, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart announced Friday afternoon.
Robert E. Crimo III is accused of fatally shooting seven people and wounding dozens of others who lined the streets of Highland Park for its Fourth of July parade earlier this year.
In 2019, Robert Crimo Jr. sponsored his son’s application for a gun permit because Crimo III was underage at the time. In early 2020, Crimo III obtained a state firearm owner’s identification card, despite his previous threats to kill himself and his family, authorities said back in July.
“Robert Crimo Jr., the father, took a reckless and unjustified risk to sign his son’s application for a firearm owner identification card,” Rinehart said.
Each count is for the seven people who were killed. Crimo Jr. surrendered Friday and will appear in court Saturday, where a judge will set his bond.
If convicted, Rinehart said, Crimo Jr. faces up to three years in prison.
“As we all work together to address the root causes of crime, to hold shooters accountable for their crimes in the courts and to pass common sense gun regulation, we must also remember the longstanding principle that people bear responsibility when they recklessly endanger others,” Rinehart said.
“These are the moral and legal foundations on which these charges rest.”
George Gomez, the attorney representing Crimo Jr., issued a statement calling the charges “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,” Gomez was quoted as saying.
The statement continued: “These charges are absurd and we will fight them every step of the way. Mr. Crimo Jr. continues to sympathize and feel terrible for the individuals and families who were injured and lost loved ones this past July 4th, but these charges are politically motivated and a distraction from the real change that needs to happen in this country.”
The younger Crimo needed the FOID card to legally purchase the Smith & Wesson M&P15 semi-automatic rifle that police and prosecutors said he used to carry out the Fourth of July massacre.
“Parents and guardians are in the best position to decide whether their teenager should have a weapon. They are the first line of defense,” Rinehart said.
Police recovered the rifle in Highland Park and found another rifle in the car Crimo drove that day. He also had pistols in a home where he lived in nearby Highwood, authorities said.
The two rifles were bought legally in the Chicago area, authorities said.
“In this case, the system failed when Robert Crimo Jr. sponsored his son. He knew what he knew and signed the form anyway,” Rinehart said. “This was criminally reckless and a contributing cause to the bodily harm suffered by the victims on July 4th.”
In July, Brandon Kelly, director of the Illinois State Police, said there wasn’t enough evidence to deny Crimo III a FOID card based on the report of violent threats toward his family.
The Highland Park Police Department visited Crimo’s home in September 2019 after getting a report he’d threatened to “kill everybody.” But he and his mother denied that, and Crimo wasn’t arrested.
Police seized several knives from Crimo’s bedroom then, but his father said they were his so they were returned.
Following the incident, Highland Park officers sent the Illinois State Police a “clear and present danger” report, saying Crimo admitted having a history of drug use and “to being depressed when statements were made.”
The seven victims “deserve decisive action from this office,” Rinehart said on Friday.
