HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — The man held by police in connection with the mass shooting at a July Fourth parade planned the attack for weeks — and dressed like a woman to avoid detection, authorities said Tuesday.
Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III, who was picked up by police hours after the fatal shootings, scaled a fire escape ladder to make himself a sniper’s nest to fire on paradegoers below on Monday, authorities said.
“But we do believe Crimo preplanned this attack for several weeks,” Chris Covelli, spokesperson for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, told reporters on Tuesday.
Covelli also revealed Crimo dressed in women’s clothes, in part, to distract from his facial tattoos. Authorities didn’t immediately detail the attire Crimo allegedly wore on Monday, or he if he wore a wig.
“During to 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,” Covelli said of the 21-year-old in custody.
And that plan seemed to work initially, as Crimo allegedly walked undetected to his mother’s home, borrowed her car and drove out of town.
“Following the attack, Crimo exited the roof, dropped his rifle and he blended in with the crowd and he escaped,” Covelli said.
“He blended right in with everybody else as they were running around almost as he was an innocent spectator as well.”
Investigators managed to piece together Crimo’s movements based largely on video footage taken Monday in downtown Highland Park.
“He was seen on video camera in the women’s clothes. Video camera played a tremendous role in how we were able to identify him both leading initially as he left,” Covelli said.
The sniper squeezed off more than 70 rounds from his rooftop perch, randomly picking off victims below.
Covelli said there was no immediate evidence that the shooter was aiming for victims based on race or religion.
Highland Park is known as a heavily Jewish suburb, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. Both news agencies noted that some estimates put the area’s Jewish population at about a third of its total estimated population of 30,100.
“At this point we have not developed a motive for him,” Covelli said.
“The shooting appears to be completely random. We have no information to suggest at this point it was racially motivated, motivated by religion or (hatred of) any other protected status.”
The weapon was legally purchased in the state of Illinois, officials said. Covelli described it as being “similar to an AR-15.”
“He brought a high-powered rifle to this parade, he accessed the roof of a business via fire-escape ladder and began opening fire on the innocent Independence Day celebration goers,” Covelli said.
Mayor Nancy Rotering on Tuesday also revealed she knew Crimo when he was in the Cub Scouts years ago.
One day after authorities said a rooftop sniper killed six people during the celebration in this wealthy Chicago suburb, Rotering told NBC’s “TODAY” show that she’s still stunned how anyone could unleash such violence.
“I know him as somebody who was a Cub Scout when I was the Cub Scout leader,” she said of Crimo, the person of interest who was picked up by police hours after the fatal shootings.
“And it’s one of those things where you step back and you say, ‘What happened? How did somebody become this angry? This hateful to then take it out on innocent people who, literally, were just having a family day out?’ ”
Asked about her memories of Crimo, the mayor succinctly responded: “He was just a little boy.”
In other developments stemming from Monday’s mass shooting:
- The mayor on Tuesday decried how the high-powered weapon used in killings could have been a legal purchase: “I don’t know where the gun came from, but I do know that it was legally obtained. And I think at some point, this nation has to have a conversation about these weekly events involving the murder of dozens of people with legally obtained guns. If that is what our laws stand for I think we need to reconsider the laws.”
- The number of people who were wounded or injured in the chaos of Monday’s attack stands at 47.
- Police are still asking for people to steer clear of downtown Highland Park on Tuesday, as investigators continue to gather evidence.
- More details are emerging about the victims of Monday’s carnage. They include Nicolas Toledo, 78, and Jacki Sundheim.
- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Tuesday the shooting marked the emergence of a new, violent American tradition, telling MSNBC: “What happened here yesterday sadly was the clash of two traditions: one wonderful tradition, of Fourth of July parades, and another horrible emerging tradition of mass shootings.” The Highland Park massacre comes on the heels of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
This is a developing story. Please refresh here for updates.
Antonio Planas reported from Highland Park, Illinois, and Marlene Lenthang and David K. Li from New York City.