Nearly one day after the man believed to be responsible for July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois was captured by the police, more information about him is coming to light.
As Mamas Uncut previously reported, police believe Robert “Bobby” Crimo III is responsible for killing 6 and injuring at least 26 more after he opened fire on a Fourth of July parade. Now Fox News is reporting that Crimo allegedly used a high-powered rifle to open fire on the parade.
Police Reveal Highland Park Shooter Disguised Himself as a Woman to Flee Shooting Undetected, As Former Coach Calls His Parents ‘a Problem’
A gun that was reportedly purchased legally. In a new statement by Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli, it was revealed that Crimo disguised himself as a woman in order to flee being captured.
“During the attack, Crimo was dressed in women’s clothing and investigators do believe he did this to conceal his facial tattoos and his identity and help him during the escape.”
“Following the attack, Crimo exited the roof, he dropped his rifle and he blended in with the crowd and he escaped. He walked to his mother’s home who lived in the area,” a tactic that allowed him to blend in.
“And he blended right in with everybody else as they were running around, almost as [if] he was an innocent spectator as well.”
Crimo has since been arrested by police. Another firearm was also found in his vehicle at the time of his arrest. That gun was also obtained legally.
Covelli added that their initial investigation revealed that Crimo had planned his attack for “several weeks.” “He brought a high-powered rifle to this parade, he accessed the roof of a business via a fire escape ladder and began opening fire.”
Social media posts also made by Crimo had proved that he “planned” and “desired” to “commit carnage for a long time in advance.” However, Crimo’s motive for all of this remains unclear.
Additionally, Fox News obtained information about Crimo’s home life. In a new interview with Fox News, Jeremy Cahnmann, who ran an after-school program at Lincoln Elementary School, where Crimo allegedly attended, opened up about the man’s parents.
According to Cahnmann, Crimo’s parents were reportedly “a problem,” saying he “remembers the parents more than him because they were kind of a problem.” As Cahnmann continued, Crimo was always picked up last from his after-school sports program.
“Every week, the Crimos were the last kids there, and we’d have to call their parents to pick them up,” he said, adding that Robert was about 9 or 10 at the time. “There wasn’t a lot of love in that family,” he claimed.
Crimo on the other hand was described as “really quiet, really soft-spoken, never made an issue,” Cahnmann said, claiming that Crimo’s mother, Denise Pesina, was the opposite.
She got into it once with one of the heads of the program, she was yelling,” he recalled. “It seemed like her kids were a nuisance to her.”
Nonetheless, the Crimo’s were a fairly well-known family in the community, Fox News reports. Pesina is a “self-proclaimed energy healer,” while Bob Crimo once ran for mayor and previously owned a sandwich shop that has since shut down.
Locals claimed that while Bob was always viewed as “so nice” and someone who always gave children “free candy and trees,” Pesina was often viewed as “unstable.”
Crimo was living with his father and uncle at the time he opened fire on the parade. “I walk by the house every day, it looks like it should be condemned,” a neighbor allegedly told Fox News. “The landscaping is seven-feet high. I was thinking to myself the other day, we should really do a welfare check.”
Five of the six victims who lost their lives were pronounced dead at the scene. The sixth victim died while at a local hospital. Several of the injured victims remain in critical and serious condition.
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