Robert Crimo Sr Highland Park gunman father talked about mass shootings with shooter son, Bobby, night before Monday’s mass shooting while insists he is not to blame after sponsoring troubled son to legally purchase gun.
The father of the accused 4th of July parade killer has revealed on the eve of Monday’s Highland Park mass shooting, talking to his son about another mass shooting, Copenhagen’s Field’s Mall shooting on Sunday in which he said his son remarked the Danish gunman was foolish.
Robert Crimo Sr also went on to rebuke open outcry that he bear responsibility for helping his son, Bobby, legally purchase the weapon prior to him turning 21 that he used during Monday’s bloodbath that left 8 dead and over 40 injured.
In an interview with the nypost, Crimo Sr. said that the night before Monday’s shooting, he and son Robert ‘Bobby’ Crimo III discussed the 22-year-old Danish man, Noah Esbensen who shot and killed three people at a mall outside of Copenhangen 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 according to the nypost.
The father said his son added, ‘People like that … [commit mass shootings] to amp up the people that want to ban all guns.’
Just a ‘childish outburst’
‘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, family lawyer, Steven Greenberg, announced that Crimo Sr. 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.
The incident, which led police to briefly confiscate a sword, dagger and 15 knives from the shooter’s home, led to the newly hired lawyer describing the episode as that of a ‘childish outburst,’ and that the knives were ‘just a collection,’ and nothing to worry about.
‘You know, I used to collect coins and baseball cards,’ the father told the tabloid.
Crimo Sr. said he decided to sponsor his son’s firearm owner’s identification card — which allowed the young man to buy the AR-15 semi automatic rifle used in Monday’s attack — because he thought son, Bobby was going to use the weapon to go to the shooting range.
Shooter father: ‘Don’t blame me, I don’t pull the trigger…’
‘He bought everything on his own, and they’re registered to him,’ the dad said of his son’s weapons in an attempt to distance himself from any culpability or suggestion the father had egged on his son.
‘You know, he drove there, he ordered them, he picked them up, they did his background check on each one,’ Crimo Sr. said insisting he had ‘zero’ involvement in the massacre.
‘They make me like I groomed him to do all this,’ the father continued. ‘I’ve been here my whole life, and I’m gonna stay here, hold my head up high, because I didn’t do anything wrong.’
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 and wants the son to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
‘I want a long sentence,’ Crimo said of his 21-year-old son to the nypost.
‘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 Sr. 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.’
