HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — An Illinois man who police say for weeks planned the mass shooting on a July Fourth parade has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder in the killing spree, officials said Tuesday evening.
Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III, 21, will be charged with additional counts in the shooting spree in Highland Park that killed seven and injured dozens of others Monday, Illinois officials said.
If convicted of murder, Crimo would receive a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Officials on Tuesday identified six of the seven people who were killed as Katherine Goldstein, 64; Irina McCarthy, 35; Kevin McCarthy, 37; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; and Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78.
The State’s Attorney for Lake County Eric Rinehart called Monday’s shooting a “premeditated and calculated attack” and said that additional charges will likely include attempted murder and aggravated battery.
“We anticipate dozens of more charges centering around each of the victims,” he said.
Crimo, whom police picked up hours after the rampage, scaled a fire escape ladder to make himself a sniper’s nest to fire on paradegoers below, authorities said.
He had planned the attack for weeks — and dressed like a woman to avoid detection, authorities said Tuesday.
“But we do believe Crimo preplanned this attack for several weeks,” Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesperson Chris Covelli said Tuesday.
An image of Crimo, obtained by NBC Chicago from a senior law enforcement official, appeared to show the man in a blue-and-white blouse with longer hair.
“During the attack, Crimo was dressed in women’s clothing, and investigators do believe he did this to conceal his facial tattoos and his identity and help him during the escape,” Covelli said.
The plan seemed to work initially, as Crimo is alleged to have walked undetected to his mother’s home, borrowed her car and driven out of town.
“Following the attack, Crimo exited the roof, dropped his rifle, and he blended in with the crowd and he escaped,” Covelli said.
“He blended right in with everybody else as they were running around, almost as if he was an innocent spectator, as well.”
Investigators pieced together Crimo’s movements based largely on video recorded Monday in downtown Highland Park, authorities said.
“He was seen on video camera in the women’s clothes. Video camera played a tremendous role in how we were able to identify him both leaving initially and as he left,” Covelli said.
The sniper fired more than 70 rounds from his rooftop perch, randomly picking off victims below, officials said.
Covelli said there was no immediate evidence that the shooter was aiming for victims based on race or religion.
Covelli said authorities had contact with Crimo twice in 2019. The first time was in April 2019, after law enforcement officers followed up on a reported suicide attempt, which Covelli said was handled by a mental health professional.
In the second incident, police responded to a call in September 2019 after a family member reported that Crimo had threatened to kill family members in his home. Multiple knives were confiscated, as well as a sword and a dagger, but he didn’t have firearms at the time, Covelli said.
Authorities said Crimo had at least five firearms Monday, including rifles and handguns, which were seized at his father’s home with a search warrant.
Asked whether so-called red flags laws should have prevented Crimo from owning guns, Covelli couldn’t provide a definitive answer.
“At that time, there was no information that he possessed any firearms, any rifles,” Covelli said. “Would that be enough, if he’s making threats? It’s a case-by-case basis. I don’t want to speak broadly to the issue. It depends on the circumstances.”
While announcing the murder charges against the suspected shooter, Rinehart called for stronger gun laws.
“Tragedies like these remind us why it’s important to have sensible gun laws and prevent people like Crimo from having access to firearms,” the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement Tuesday evening
Rinehart said he will ask a court Wednesday to hold the suspect without the possibility of bail.
Highland Park is known as a heavily Jewish suburb, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Both noted that some estimates put the area’s Jewish population at about a third of its total estimated population of 30,100.
“At this point, we have not developed a motive for him,” Covelli said.
“The shooting appears to be completely random. We have no information to suggest at this point it was racially motivated, motivated by religion or [hatred of] any other protected status.”
The weapon was legally purchased in Illinois, officials said. Covelli described it as being “similar to an AR-15.”
“He brought a high-powered rifle to this parade, he accessed the roof of a business via fire escape ladder and began opening fire on the innocent Independence Day celebration-goers,” Covelli said.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said Tuesday that she knew knew Crimo when he was in the Cub Scouts years ago.
She said on “TODAY” that she’s stunned that anyone could unleash such violence.
“I know him as somebody who was a Cub Scout when I was the Cub Scout leader,” she said.
“And it’s one of those things where you step back and you say: ‘What happened? How did somebody become this angry, this hateful, to then take it out on innocent people who, literally, were just having a family day out?’”
Asked about her memories of Crimo, Rotering succinctly responded: “He was just a little boy.”
This report was originally published in NBC News.
