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Highland Park shooter Robert Crimo’s uncle JUSTIFIES brother’s decision to buy his son guns

'I support him 100% — I think he did the right thing,' Paul Crimo told CNN
UPDATED JUL 9, 2022
Robert Crimo was arrested after he killed several people at a July 4 parade in a Chicago suburb (FBI)
Robert Crimo was arrested after he killed several people at a July 4 parade in a Chicago suburb (FBI)

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: The uncle of Robert Crimo III, responsible for taking the lives of seven people and injuring numerous others during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park with a rifle, has defended his brother’s decision to buy guns for his son.

Speaking to CNN, Paul Crimo said: “I support him [Bob Crimo] 100% — I think he did the right thing.” Though Paul accepted that Bob “surely” had an idea about his son being probed by law enforcement in 2019 after he threatened to murder everyone in the family, he blamed lax gun laws for the latest tragedy. Two years before the massacre, the future mass killer reportedly had one-on-one with the authorities twice.

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The first was in April of that year when he claimed he was going to kill himself. After that, in September 2019, Robert Crimo threatened to take the lives of all his family members. At the time, police had recovered 16 knives, a sword and a dagger from his possession. A New York Post report also stated that he had told police that “he was a depressed teenage drug user” and was deemed a “clear and present danger”.

Recalling that time, Chris Covelli of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said that in 2019 “an individual contacted Highland Park department a week after learning of him attempting to suicide. It was a delayed report. They responded to the residence, spoke to him, his parents and the matter was being handled with the mental health profession. There was no law enforcement action to be taken.”

He added: “In September 2019, a family member reported that he said he was going to ‘kill everyone’ and that he had a collection of knives. They responded and took 16 knives and a dagger from his home. There was no probable cause to arrest and no complaints assigned by the victims. They did notify the Illinois State Police.” But despite all these, Bob helped his son in getting guns for himself by providing him with money for application for a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card in Illinois. Not just that, he also gave back the weapons, which cops had earlier taken away from the young man.

Now in the interview with CNN, Paul said, “People recover quickly … maybe he recovered quickly and he was in his right mind frame at that time.” He also mentioned that Bob probably “saw no trouble when he signed” the FOID card for his son before clearing that if he would be in place of his brother he “wouldn’t … I probably would not have signed it.” The uncle then went on to say, “If somebody has a life threat, if somebody’s suicidal or if somebody’s under depression … the state should see that and not give the person a FOID card,” while he added: “If he had seemed unfit then he would never have gotten the FOID card.”

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Meanwhile, it has been said that Bob is expected to face criminal charges too as his son has been slapped with seven counts of first-degree murder. State Police Director Brendan Kelly said, “There’s probably going to be civil litigation. There is ongoing criminal prosecution and criminal investigation. Issues of culpability, liability, who may have responsibility in certain circumstances, are all part and parcel of that process. Making a conclusionary statement, the Illinois State Police, weighing in on that, is not appropriate.”

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