Mother of Highland Park shooter is seen unloading Target bags hours after her son  appeared in court

The mother of the Highland Park shooter has been seen for the first time since her son shot dead seven people at a Fourth of July parade. 

DailyMail.com spotted Denise Pesina, 48, arriving at her single-family home in Highland Park, Illinois, Wednesday afternoon with her white Smart filled with shopping bags from Target. 

Just three hours earlier her son Bobby Crimo, 21, appeared in Lake County Court via Zoom to face seven counts of first-degree murder.

Pesina angrily refused to answer questions from DailyMail.com about her son and Monday’s massacre as she unloaded her car. Instead she gave a reporter her attorney’s business card.

Dressed in a bohemian-style multi-colored skirt and green tank top, Pesina made two trips from the car to get all her bags of groceries. 

Pesina and husband Bob, 58, are not believed to have been at the courthouse when their son appeared via the electronic link.

The couple live apart. Pesina lives a little over a mile from the scene of the shooting, while Crimo’s father has a home in Highwood, Illinois, where the shooter lived until his arrest.

Later in the afternoon Crimo’s father Bob Crimo Jr. arrived at his nearby home in Highwood with two law enforcement officers, and was pictured exclusively by DailyMail.com.

The dad led the officers, one of them with a pistol tucked in his waistband, to the separate apartment at the back of the property where the shooter lived.

All three were there for a few minutes before emerging at 4.50pm local time.

Bob, in a black t-shirt and blue jeans, headed straight for his blue Nissan Rogue before backing out and driving off. The officers headed in a different direction in a silver Chevrolet Suburban.

 At Wednesday’s court appearance, Crimo spoke softly to tell the court that he did not have a lawyer, and to ask for a public defender. He was dressed in all-black, wore his long dark hair draped over one eye and shifted on his feet as he appeared via Zoom from a room in the Lake County Jail. 

He was denied bond by Judge Theodore Potkonjak, and will remain in custody until his next court date on July 25th.

It was revealed that Crimo went to his mom’s house and borrowed her car after the shooting. He drove to Madison, Wisconsin, and happened upon another July 4 celebration before he was arrested. 

Police said they had no indication that Pesina knew he was the shooter when she agreed to let him take the vehicle.

DailyMail.com previously revealed that Crimo and his younger brother were often left behind at their afterschool program because their ‘flighty’ mom forgot to pick them up or their dad was at work. 

Crimo attended Lincoln Elementary School with his younger brother Sam. Between 2008 and 2014, they attended the LEAP afterschool program. 

Jeremy Cahnmann, 47, a sports coach in the program, told DailyMail.com how out of hundreds of kids he taught over the years, the Crimo brothers stood out because their parents often left them behind. 

He said it ‘of course’ did not explain why he committed such violence yesterday, but that the constant occurrences likely made him feel neglected as a child. 

It’s unclear when the shooter’s parents separated but they no longer live together; Crimo’s father, Bob, is a local deli owner and one-time mayoral candidate.

His mother Denise is an alternative healer. A video of her talking about the alleged healing powers of magnets and mindfulness, made in March last year is on YouTube.

Cahnmann remembers the father often being tied up at work or forgetting to make arrangements for Bobby and his younger brother. 

‘Bobby and his brother were always the last ones. Either somebody forgot or they were busy. 

‘The father had a business, a deli. He was routinely late or the mom was routinely late. It ended up getting to the point where they had words with the faculty advisor. 

‘Nobody could get a hold of anyone in that house,’ he said. 

He added that Bobby and his younger brother seemed to get along and never caused any problems in the program, but that they were ‘quiet’.   

‘He was a little more reserved and shy but certainly there was no sort of indication of anything sinister. 

‘The problem was more with the parents than the kids,’ he said. 

Crimo’s parents have not yet commented on Monday’s horrors, except to issue a statement through their attorney.

We are all mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and this is a terrible tragedy for many families, the victims, the paradegoers, the community, and our own,’ the statement read.

‘Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to everybody.’

Crimo dressed up as a woman to carry out the attack then used his disguise to hide in plain sight among the frightened crowd as they tried to flee. He then went to his mom’s house and borrowed her Honda Fit.

He then drove out of Highland Park and managed to evade police for eight hours before being apprehended. Police say he went to Madison, Wisconsin where he happened upon another parade and considered shooting it up too, but then decided against

Canhmann said he remembered Crimo’s dad as a hardworking father who was ‘nice enough’ but who irritated staff by not being there to pick up his kids on time. 

‘What I remember of him he was a hardworking guy, he was nice enough but you know, it was problematic that he wasn’t there or he didn’t make arrangements.’ 

The two brothers have an older half-sister, Lynette Pesina.