Highland Park gunman dressed as GIRL to hide in plain sight after killing six before evading cops for eight hours in his mom’s car with TWO legally purchased rifles: Cops probe link between July 4 shooting and his obsession with numbers 4 and 7
Highland Park gunman Robert ‘Bobby’ Crimo dressed up as a woman to carry out yesterday’s attack and was able to flee in the crowd because of the disguise, cops revealed on Tuesday.
Crimo, 21, has not yet been charged for the massacre but he remains in custody and is speaking with the authorities.
Police on Tuesday revealed that he legally owned multiple weapons including two rifles – one that was used in the attack and another that was found in his vehicle when he was arrested at 6.30pm last night. Crimo’s motive remains unclear, but police say he had been plotting the attack for weeks.
He legally purchased the two rifles along with other guns in the local area – despite a ban on assault rifles in Highland Park, buying them at multiple locations.
On Monday, after the attack, he fled among frightened paradegoers, pretending to be one of the victims, and went to his mother’s house.
It’s unclear if he told her what he had done or if she is being treated as a suspect, but he took her car.
It comes as questions over the young gunman’s motive, lifestyle and his obsession with the numbers 47 arise.
Crimo had a 47 tattoo on his cheek and the numbers are emblazoned on the side of a car at his home. The vehicle was left abandoned in the front yard on Tuesday after the home was raided by FBI agents. Crimo also posted the number all over his social media accounts, where he also shared ominous rap videos that glamorized school shootings.
On Tuesday, it was revealed:
- Crimo legally purchased the semi-automatic weapon used in the attack along with one other rifle and more, unspecified weapons, at a local store
- He fired 70 rounds from the roof of a local store before ditching the weapon and running into the crowd himself
- He walked to his mother’s house then asked her for her car, without telling her what he’d just done
- The woman gave him her vehicle, which he used to flee the area and drive eight miles north before being arrested
- Investigators are still interviewing Crimo but they have not been able to determine his motive
It’s unclear what the significance is; 47 is the date of July 4th in reverse. The next President will also be the 47th. Crimo is a Trump fan and previously attended his rallies.
His parents, including his local politician father, has not yet addressed his role in the massacre but his uncle said he was a ‘quiet kid’ who kept largely to himself.
Paul Crimo, his uncle, has since told how he was behaving normally on Sunday night. He claims he showed ‘no signs of violence’ – despite YouTube rap videos in which he glamorized school shootings. The shooter’s motive for yesterday’s attack remains unknown.
‘I’m heartbroken. I’m so heartbroken. There were no signs that I saw that would make him do this. He’s a quiet kid. He’s usually on his own. He’s a lonely, quiet person. He keeps everything to himself,’ Paul Crimo, his uncle, told CNN.
‘Everything was as normal,’ he said, adding that he was sitting on a recliner in his home the night before the shooting, looking at his computer. We are good people here, and to have this is devastating. I’m so heartbroken for all the families who lost their lives.’
Crimo’s parents have not yet addressed the attack. His father Bob Sr. ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Nancy Rotering.
On Tuesday morning, Rotering confirmed that Crimo ‘legally obtained’ his weapon. She said she taught him when he was a cub scout, and that he was a normal ‘little boy’. Police are yet to confirm what type of weapon he used, but witnesses and videos suggest it was a high-powered rifle.
It’s one of those situations where you stand back and ask, what happened? How did somebody become this angry, this hateful, to then take it out on innocent people who were just literally having a family day out.?
‘He was just a little boy,’ she said.
Rotering also called for greater gun reform and said that while the gunman ‘clearly had a mental breakdown’, the issue is not with mental health but with guns being legal.
‘I don’t know where it came from but I do know it was legally obtained. At some point this nation needs to have a conversation about these weekly events involving the murder of dozens of people with legally obtained guns. If that’s what our laws stand for, we need to re-examine the laws. Our values are askew. Yesterday we came together to celebrate independence and freedom after two years of not having a parade.
‘We were ready to come together and celebrate our nation and as a result, because of this gun culture, our nation turned its back on us. We have to have a very strong conversation with ourselves. I don’t know how many more of these incidents need to occur, we’ve been talking about this literally for decades at this point.
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