Robert Crimo Sr helped alleged Highland Park gunman son, Bobby, buy a gun, despite months earlier threatening to kill himself and his family as family lawyer insists there were no red flags preempting gun purchase.
When the parents are in more denial than their son … The father of the alleged Highland Park gunman has admitted helping his ‘troubled’ son buy a gun after cops confiscated his knife collection after the son threatened to kill his entire family months earlier.
Robert Crimo’s parents, Bob and Denise Crimo, in their first statement to the public since Monday’s mass shooting that left 8 dead said: ‘We are all mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and this is a terrible tragedy for many families, the victims, the paradegoers, the community, and our own. Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to everybody.’
The family’s comments come as Robert Crimo Sr. a local deli owner admitted sponsoring his son’s application for a gun permit in 2020, a year after the then 19 year old had threatened to kill himself and his family.
In September 2019, Illinois State Police received a ‘clear and present danger’ report related to Robert Crimo’s family after the teen threatened to kill himself and his family. They removed knives from the property, but later returned those, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The then 19yr old teen was not arrested. He was two years under the legal age minimum to apply for the firearm owner’s identification (FOID) card needed to legally obtain a weapon.
Highland Park gunman dad talked about mass shootings w/ son, insists he is not to blame
How did son’s murder suicide death threats not make it on police file?
But despite the murder-suicide threats, Crimo’s father sponsored him for a FOID card in December 2019, and it was approved a month later, in January 2020.
Officials have since said they approved the permit because there was ‘insufficient basis’ to deem Crimo dangerous, with the only record on his file a 2016 ordnance violation for possession of tobacco.
That meant Crimo was legally-able to buy the weapon used in Tuesday’s massacre.
It remained unclear why there was no police filing of the son threatening to kill himself and his family.
The revelations come despite the family’s lawyer insisting there were no red flags against the son that ought to have preempted him from acquiring a gun.
In an interview with NewsNation, family lawyer, Steve Greenberg, denied there being any red flags against Crimo.
Greenberg said: ‘I don’t think anyone’s ever aware of any red flags that make them think that their son is gonna go out in their own community and start shooting people.’
‘They’re responsible parents’
He added: ‘Had they seen any signs of it, I think they would have acted. They’re responsible parents.’
Police at first said that Crimo was not known to them but on Tuesday, they revealed he was interviewed twice by authorities in 2019.
The first was in April 2019 a week after he threatened to kill himself. The second was in September 2019, after he threatened to ‘kill everyone’ in his family.
Police recovered 16 knives, a dagger and sword from his home but he was not arrested.
Instead, the son upon turning 21 was able to buy two assault rifles in Illinois, along with three other types of gun with the assistance of his father. It remains unclear why the two previous incidents were not flagged when he legally purchased the weapons.
Greenberg told News Nation Now Crimo’s parents ‘dispute’ the police version of events involving threats that their son allegedly made against them.
Family lawyer denies red flags existed preempting gun purchase
In December 2019, the suspect bought a firearm with his father’s help as he was under the age of 21 at the time. Crimo’s father sponsored his son’s application for a Firearm Owners Identification card in Illinois.
The attorney rejected the allegation that the family should have been alarmed at the notion of Crimo having a firearm just months after being interviewed by the police.
Greenberg said: ‘I think the bigger issue here is why is a kid able to get a FOID card and then purchase a military assault weapon? I think that’s a bigger question that we should be asking ourselves. Not whether the family should have sponsored him to get a FOID card when there were no red flags and it was perfectly lawful.’
The lawyer maintained there were no red flags, despite cops being called after the son threatening to kill himself and family members. Never-mind the ongoing nihilistic self defacement and increasingly violent and morbid social media postings.
Amid intense scrutiny of the decision to help his son buy a gun, Greenberg on Tuesday defended the father, saying that police ‘couldn’t have been too concerned’ because they returned the knives to the family two weeks later.
Told the lawyer, ‘The police returned those knives to them two weeks after they took the knives. The police couldn’t have been too alarmed. There was a dispute and the situation was resolved.’
The lawyer also disputed statements that Bobby was ever suicidal along with claims ever being made that the son was suicidal, or of having ever threatened to kill everyone.
‘If he had, the police would have taken some action, placed him on a psychiatric watch. I’m not sure that’s really what happened,’ the lawyer maintained.
The latest revelations comes after the alleged gunman’s father, Robert Crimo Sr liked a tweet supporting the Second Amendment in the aftermath of the Uvalde school massacre a month earlier.
Read a Twitter post that the gunman’s father upvoted: ‘Protect the Second Amendment like your life depends on it.’
In 2019, Crimo ran as a Republican for mayor, calling himself ‘a person for the people.’ He was defeated by the city’s current mayor, Nancy Rotering, a Democrat, whose campaign touted the importance of gun control, reported the Independent.
