UPDATE
Dec 16, 2022 4:40 PM CST
Prosecutors announced that they've charged the father of a man facing 21 first-degree murder counts in a mass shooting at a July 4 parade near Chicago. Robert Crimo Jr., who surrendered Friday, is charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said, in connection with his sponsorship of his son's application for a gun license in 2019. A grand jury's indictment of Robert Crimo III accuses him of killing seven people at the Highland Park parade and wounding dozens of others, the AP reports. "The system failed when Robert Crimo Jr. sponsored his son," Rinehart said. "He knew what he knew and he signed the form anyway."
Jul 6, 2022 8:54 AM CDT
More details are emerging about how the suspected gunman in the July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park managed to legally purchase weapons—five of them. Lake County Major Crime Task Force rep Christopher Covelli says that in September 2019, police confiscated 16 knives, a dagger, and a sword after they were called to the suspect's home by a family member who said he was threatening to "kill everyone." Per a press release from the Illinois State Police, there were no arrests made at the time and "no one, including family, was willing to move forward on a complaint nor did they subsequently provide information on threats or mental health that would have allowed law enforcement to take additional action."
Further, a separate press release explains that "additionally and importantly, the father claimed the knives were his and they were being stored in the individual’s closet for safekeeping. Based upon that information, the Highland Park Police returned the knives to the father later that afternoon." Four months later, at age 19, the suspect applied for a Firearm Owners Identification card—required to make gun purchases in the state—with his father sponsoring his application since he was not yet 21. "There was insufficient basis to establish a clear and present danger" at that time, and so the license was granted.
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Fox News reports the suspect subsequently cleared state-required background checks before buying firearms at least four separate times in 2020 and 2021, per Illinois State Police. Illinois law allows for the denial of gun purchases to people with felony convictions, drug addictions, or those characterized as "mental defectives" who are capable of harming themselves or others. But "a court, board, commission or other legal authority" must determine who is a "mental defective." The AP describes this as "just the latest example of young men who were able to obtain guns and carry out massacres in recent months despite glaring warning signs about their mental health and inclination to violence."
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