Home Scandal and Gossip Foiled attack? Robert Crimo was kicked out of Highland Park synagogue

Foiled attack? Robert Crimo was kicked out of Highland Park synagogue

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Robert Crimo was kicked out of Highland Park synagogue
Robert Crimo was kicked out of Highland Park synagogue according to Rabbi
Robert Crimo was kicked out of Highland Park synagogue
Robert Bobby Crimo was kicked out of Highland Park synagogue according to Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz.

Robert Crimo was kicked out of Highland Park synagogue as investigators pour through the shooting suspect’s social media profile, exploring whether the gunman was motivated by racial or religious bigotry. 

Was he also planning an attack against a local Jewish congregation?

Bobby Crimo, the alleged 22 year old Highland Park shooting suspect who fatally picked off seven and wounded more than 40 from a rooftop during a 4th of July parade was kicked out of a local synagogue during Passover just months before Monday’s deadly attack, a rabbi said on Tuesday.

Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz said he immediately recognized a photo of Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III released by authorities when was named a ‘person of interest’ following Monday’s mass shooting in the affluent Chicago suburb, the Times of Israel reported.

‘During the last Passover holiday, that person entered the Chabad synagogue,’ Schanowitz said of Robert Crimo.

‘We have an armed security guard sitting in front. … I approached [Crimo] and sternly asked him to leave, as I noticed he was not a member of our community.’

Motivated by racial or religious bigotry? 

The rabbi didn’t elaborate on whether Crimo was behaving in a certain way that may have warranted him being asked to leave from the synagogue otherwise.

Schanowitz’s synagogue is located just two blocks from where Crimo allegedly opened gunfire on Monday. Of note, a recent report indicates Highland Park as being home to at least three synagogues, catering to third of the town’s 30K residents who are Jewish.

The latest revelation comes as investigators sought to determine the gunman’s motive for the parade massacre, County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli told a news conference on Tuesday.

Covelli said authorities were interrogating the suspect and going through his social media posts — but had yet to find anything suggesting he targeted anyone by race or religion.

‘We have no indication to suggest at this point that it was racially motivated, motivated by religion or any other protected status,’ Covelli said.

‘At this point, we have not developed a motive from him. Investigators … have been in discussions with him. I don’t have anything to say about motivation thus far because it hasn’t been provided.’

The Highland Park neighborhood was targeted in April when a string of anti-Semitic leaflets were left outside homes on Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day, FOX32 reported at the time.

It remained unclear if the April incident may have served to pique the gunman’s curiosity and the practicality of targeting a large swath of congregants. 

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