Accused gunman held without bail in Illinois July 4 parade massacre

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — An Illinois man charged in the killing of seven people at a Fourth of July parade was ordered held in jail without bond Wednesday, as questions continued to mount about why he was allowed to buy guns despite alarming police encounters.

Robert Crimo III, 21, was accused of climbing onto a rooftop Monday and using a high-powered rifle to spray dozens of bullets onto the parade route in Highland Park, a Chicago suburb. The police said Crimo legally purchased the gun after authorities had received two troubling reports about him.

In April 2019, someone called police to say that he had attempted suicide, and a few months later, officers seized several knives from him after a relative reported that Crimo planned to “kill everyone.” Months after those encounters, Crimo’s father sponsored his son’s application for a state permit that is required to own guns.

That Crimo was then approved for that permit, and that he soon purchased several weapons, including at least two rifles, called into question the application and potency of Illinois’ firearm laws.

Though the state’s gun laws are among the country’s strictest, they did not stop Crimo from legally arming himself. Prosecutors said Crimo purchased the Smith & Wesson semiautomatic rifle used in the attack in 2020, the year after the knife seizure.

Crimo, who appeared by video Wednesday in a Lake County courtroom, told Judge Theodore Potkonjak of the state circuit court that he did not have a lawyer. A public defender, Gregory Ticsay, said Crimo did not have money to post for bail but provided little other information about his client.

In court, Ben Dillon, a prosecutor, described in the fullest detail yet how officials say the attack unfolded. He said Crimo used a fire escape to climb onto a rooftop in the city’s downtown. There, Dillon said, the gunman opened fire, emptying a 30-round magazine, then another, and then inserted a third magazine. Officials recovered 83 bullet casings, Dillon said.

Crimo then left the roof and fled through an alley, and along the way dropped the gun, which federal officials soon traced to him.

Dillon said Crimo confessed to the shooting after his arrest Monday evening. Crimo told investigators he had worn women’s clothing and covered his neck tattoos with makeup in order to blend into the crowd, the prosecutor said.

For hours after the shooting, authorities searched for the gunman. Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said investigators believed that Crimo fled to Madison, Wis., after the attack, but then returned to Illinois, where he was arrested. Covelli said police believed Crimo saw a holiday celebration in Madison and considered using a second rifle that he had with him in the car to carry out another shooting there but decided against it.

The Illinois State Police received a formal warning about Crimo from the Highland Police just months before he was approved for a firearm license. The state agency received what is known as a “clear and present danger” form regarding Crimo in Sept. 2019. But the state agency said that when the firearm card was decided a few months later, “there was insufficient basis to establish a clear and present danger and deny the FOID application.”

The State Police said that Crimo’s father had sponsored his application for the permit. Steven Greenberg, a lawyer representing the father, acknowledged that the father had done so, and said there were possible explanations. Greenberg said his client did not believe there was an issue, and might not have understood what happened with the knife seizure because it did not happen in his house. “It was perfectly legal,” he said of sponsoring the gun permit.