Highland Park shooting suspect’s dad denies culpability for parade massacre: report

The suspected Highland Park shooter’s father doesn’t believe he’s culpable in the attack that killed seven people and wounded dozens more.

Bobby Crimo Jr. told ABC News that there was “not an inkling, warning” before his son, Robert Crimo III, allegedly opened fire with a rifle from a rooftop at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago on Monday.

He says the attack left him “shocked” and doesn’t know of a potential motive.

“That’s what I’d like to ask him when I see him,” Crimo Jr. told ABC. “Whatever was going on in his head at the time … to go kill and hurt innocent people is just senseless.”

Crimo III was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday, with Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart saying the charges were “the first of many” that will be filed against the suspect.

In a video feed from the Lake County, Ill., jail Robert E. Crimo III appears before Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak in his initial court appearance Wednesday, July 6, 2022, in Waukegan, Ill. Crimo is accused of killing seven people during a mass shooting during a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Ill.
In a video feed from the Lake County, Ill., jail Robert E. Crimo III appears before Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak in his initial court appearance Wednesday, July 6, 2022, in Waukegan, Ill. Crimo is accused of killing seven people during a mass shooting during a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Ill.

In a video feed from the Lake County, Ill., jail Robert E. Crimo III appears before Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak in his initial court appearance Wednesday, July 6, 2022, in Waukegan, Ill. Crimo is accused of killing seven people during a mass shooting during a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, Pool) (Charles Rex Arbogast/)

The 21-year-old Crimo III drove to Madison, Wisc., on Monday after the shooting and considered carrying out another attack there, before deciding against it and returning to Illinois, Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli said Wednesday.

Crimo III was taken into custody in Illinois on Monday after a multi-hour manhunt. Prosecutors say Crimo III used a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle and confessed to the shooting to authorities.

Highland Park shooting suspect Robert Crimo considered another attack in Wisconsin after parade massacre: officials

The suspect’s father says he spoke with Crimo III for almost an hour on the night before the shooting, telling ABC News that his son was in a “great mood.”

Crimo Jr. confirmed to ABC that he filled out a consent form for his son’s firearms owner’s license, which will be investigated by authorities. He reportedly filled out the form in 2019.

“Do I regret that? No, not three years ago — signing a consent form to go through the process … that’s all it was,” he told ABC. “Had I purchased guns throughout the years and given them to him in my name, that’s a different story. But he went through that whole process himself.”

Crimo Jr. says he knows some of the victims who were wounded in the shooting, and said his “heart goes out to all of the families that were affected.”