Crimo dad washes hands of guilt but talked with son about a mass shooting night before Highland Park massacre
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. – The dad of the accused Fourth of July parade killer told The Post on Wednesday that his son talked about a mass shooting in Denmark the night before allegedly launching his own massacre — and the dad washed his hands of any guilt over how the suspect got his gun.
The father, Robert Crimo Jr. — who has tapped one of R. Kelly’s lawyers to battle claims that he helped his mentally disturbed kid buy guns — said that the night before Monday’s shooting, he and son Robert Crimo III discussed the 22-year-old Danish man who shot and killed three people at a mall outside Copenhagen on Sunday.
“He goes, ‘Yeah, that guy is an idiot.’ That’s what he said!” the dad recalled his son saying of the Denmark shooter.
The father said his son added, “People like that … [commit mass shootings] to amp up the people that want to ban all guns.”
Robert Crimo Jr. tells The Post he thinks his son, alleged
Highland Park shooter Robert Crimo III, should get a long prison
sentence. Daniel William McKnight for NY Post
“I talked to him 13 hours before [Monday’s massacre]. That’s why I guess I’m in such shock. … Like, did he have a psychiatric break or something?” the father said of his son.
On Tuesday, Steven Greenberg, who previously represented R. Kelly in the fallen singing superstar’s federal sex-trafficking case out of Brooklyn, announced that Crimo Jr. and his estranged wife, Denise, had retained him in the wake of their son’s arrest.
The father, a onetime local mayoral candidate who used to run a neighborhood sandwich shop, has faced a wave of criticism for sponsoring his son’s gun license application, which allowed Crimo III to buy four guns, including his alleged slay weapon, before age 21.
The dad sponsored the application three months after his son was labeled a “clear and present danger” by authorities for threatening to kill relatives in 2019.
Robert Crimo III was labeled a “clear and present danger”
after an incident in which he threatened to kill his whole family in
2019. Lake County Sheriff’s OfficeThe incident, which led police to briefly confiscate a sword, dagger and 15 knives from the shooter’s home, was just a “childish outburst,” and the knives were “just a collection,” Crimo Jr. told The Post on Wednesday.
“You know, I used to collect coins and baseball cards,” the dad said.
Crimo Jr. said he decided to sponsor his son’s firearm owner’s identification card — which allowed the young man to buy the AR-15 used in the attack — because he thought Crimo III was going to use the weapon to go to the shooting range.
“He bought everything on his own, and they’re registered to him,” the dad said of his son’s weapons.
Surveillance footage captured Robert Crimo III walking down the street in what appears to be women’s clothing.Highland Park PD via REUTERSMore coverage on the Highland Park parade shooting
Crimo Jr., who’s been telling reporters he isn’t the shooter’s dad but instead a caretaker for the home, said he and the suspect’s mother are “devastated” and “floored” over the bloodshed.
While the father said he’s fully supportive of his son and will continue attending all of his court hearings, he’s “furious” over the tragedy.
“I want a long sentence,” Crimo said of his 21-year-old son.
“That’s life. You know you have consequences for actions. He made a choice. He didn’t have to do that. I think there’s mental illness there, obviously. … I didn’t see a lot of it.”
Crimo Jr. insisted that his son’s crimes were not motivated by hate and noted that a relative of one of his lifelong friends was injured in the shooting.
“I’m speechless with that. It just took me by such surprise. It’s horrible,” he said when asked about the victims.
“It’s surreal. I mean essentially I lost a son, too. It sucks.”
Source: New York Post
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