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

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Robert E. Crimo III, the individual of curiosity in a mass taking pictures at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Sick., was an aspiring rapper whose social media movies and posts confirmed violent and ominous imagery usually glorifying mass shootings and killings.

Crimo, 21, was taken into custody Monday after an hours-long manhunt when police pulled him over after a quick automobile chase. Police haven’t stated what particular data led them to Crimo, however Chris Covelli, spokesperson for the Lake County Main Crimes Job Power, instructed reporters on Tuesday that police consider “Crimo pre-planned this assault for a number of weeks.”

Covelli additionally instructed reporters that Crimo wearing girls’s garments to distract from his facial tattoos.

“Throughout the assault, Crimo was wearing girls’s clothes and investigators do consider he did this to hide his facial tattoos and his id and assist him throughout the escape,” Covelli stated of the 21-year-old in custody.

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Police stated the shooter’s assault got here from a rooftop above the parade route, firing right into a crowd that was gathered to observe the Independence Day parade. Police consider the shooter used a ladder in an alley to climb up onto the roof.

“Following the assault, Crimo exited the roof, dropped his rifle and he blended in with the gang and he escaped,” Covelli stated.

“He blended proper in with everyone else as they have been operating round nearly as if he was an harmless spectator as effectively.”

From there, Covelli stated, Crimo allegedly walked to his mom’s home, borrowed her automobile, and tried to make his method out of city.

Neighbours instructed CBS Information that Crimo lives in a home together with his father and uncle. As of this writing, he has not but been formally charged within the taking pictures that left six individuals useless and dozens extra injured.

Crimo, who goes by the identify Bobby, was a rapper with the stage identify Awake the Rapper, posting on social media dozens of movies and songs, some with threatening, darkish language.

In a single animated video that has since been taken down by YouTube, Crimo raps about armies “strolling in darkness” as a drawing seems of a person pointing a rifle, a physique on the bottom and one other determine with fingers up within the distance. A later body exhibits a close-up of a chest with blood pouring out and one other of police vehicles arriving because the shooter holds his fingers up.

In one other video, wherein Crimo seems in a classroom carrying a black bicycle helmet, he says he’s “like a sleepwalker — I do know what I’ve to do,” then provides, “All the pieces has led as much as this. Nothing can cease me, even myself.”

In response to NBC Information, the YouTube account that hosted his movies, which had beforehand been accessible to the general public, was unavailable as of Monday night.

Following the taking pictures Monday, 26 sufferers have been despatched to Highland Park hospital with gunshot accidents, in keeping with Dr. Bringham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness for NorthShore College Well being Heart.

Their ages vary from eight to 85 years outdated, he stated, and embrace 4 or 5 kids. Some are in essential situation, together with one baby, and 19 have been handled and discharged.

Amongst these killed, 5 have been adults who died on the scene, whereas one other individual of unknown age was taken to hospital and died there, in keeping with Lake County coroner Jennifer Banek. Authorities are within the means of notifying their households.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering instructed CNN that she believes the assault rifle utilized by the suspected shooter was purchased legally. She stated her workplace is ready for authorities to file costs in opposition to “the person.” Covelli, additionally addressed this Tuesday, saying based mostly on the data they’ve up to now it seems the rifle was bought legally in Illinois.

In an interview with At the moment, Rotering stated it appeared that a number of of the suspect’s on-line postings “mirrored a plan and a desire to commit carnage for a very long time upfront.”

“And it’s a kind of issues the place you step again and also you say, what occurred? How did someone turn out to be this indignant and hateful?” she stated.

“To then take it out on harmless individuals who actually have been simply having a household day trip?”

NBC Information experiences that Crimo was lively on Discord, an internet app that permits customers to ship and share messages, media and recordsdata. In response to the outlet, Crimo hosted his personal channel on the app, which featured a politics board stuffed with “nihilistic political memes.”

NBC Information additionally experiences that suspect posted incessantly to a server that shared graphic depictions of loss of life, suicide and homicide. Final week, in his final posting earlier than the taking pictures, he shared a video of a beheading.

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Rotering instructed At the moment that she didn’t assume Crimo had been linked to earlier crimes or was known to police previous to the taking pictures.

“Whether or not it’s Buffalo, N.Y.,, Uvalde, Texas, or Highland Park, Sick., that is unbelievable to me, that that is a suitable a part of who we’re as a nation,” Rotering stated, referencing a current string of mass shootings within the U.S.

The suspect’s uncle, Paul Crimo, instructed CNN he didn’t consider his nephew had a job and was final employed at Panera Bread earlier than the pandemic. He described his nephew as a “lonely, quiet person” who “retains the whole lot to himself.”

Police haven’t advised a possible motive for the assault.

In an announcement relating to the taking pictures, U.S. President Joe Biden stated: “Jill and I are shocked by the mindless gun violence that has but once more introduced grief to an American group this Independence Day. As all the time, we’re grateful for the primary responders and regulation enforcement on the scene.

“I cannot quit preventing the epidemic of gun violence.”

— With recordsdata from International Information’ Eric Stober and Sean Boynton

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