Highland Park suspected shooter’s father is charged with felony reckless conduct
By Andy Rose, Carolyn Sung and Christina Maxouris, CNN
The father of the man accused of killing seven people and wounding dozens more at the Highland Park, Illinois, Fourth of July parade was arrested Friday and facing felony reckless conduct charges, prosecutors announced.
Robert Crimo, Jr., is charged with seven counts of felony reckless conduct, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said.
Prosecutors allege Crimo Jr. was "criminally reckless" when he signed his son's application for an Illinois Firearm Owners Identification card nearly three years before the massacre, which is required to purchase a gun in Illinois.
Helping his son get the card was a "contributing cause to the bodily harm suffered by the homicide victims in the mass shooting," prosecutors said in a news release.
The accused gunman, Robert "Bobby" E. Crimo III, killed seven people and injured dozens more -- ranging from 8 to 85 years old -- during what was supposed to have been a carefree, family-friendly patriotic celebration last summer.
Rinehart said Friday the alleged shooter would not have been able to obtain the card without a parent's assistance because he was under the age of 21.
Crimo Jr. turned himself in to law enforcement on Friday, Rinehart said, and will have a bond hearing on Saturday.
The elder Crimo, who has previously denied any responsibility over the mass shooting, agreed to sponsor his son's gun license in 2019, months after local police received a report the son had said "he was going to kill everyone" in his family, police said back in July.
Officers also had checked on the younger Crimo earlier that year after he had "attempted to commit suicide by machete," according to a police report. An attorney for the parents said in July the disputed details of the incidents in the police reports.
"He knew what he knew, and he signed the form anyway," Rinehart said on Friday. "This was criminally reckless and a contributing cause to the bodily harm suffered by the victims on July 4th."
Investigators were gathering evidence since July
In the days after the July 4 attack, Lake County prosecutors said they had not ruled out charges against the father, and they were still reviewing evidence "in terms of who knew what when."
Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart reiterated after the mass shooting investigators were working to piece together what family members and others may have known before the attack and said while there was no criminal liability for sponsoring a firearm owner's ID, there were "different ways to look at potential criminal liability" in this case.
Eric A. Johnson, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, previously explained to CNN a reckless homicide charge is applicable to any act which causes a death, so long as the person was reckless in performing the act, meaning they knew of a substantial and unjustifiable risk the act would cause someone's death.
In August, Crimo III pleaded not guilty to 117 criminal charges, including 21 counts of first-degree murder, court officials said. He was also arraigned on 48 counts of attempted first-degree murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, one for each victim who was struck by a bullet, bullet fragment or shrapnel, Rinehart said at the time.
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