Bobby Crimo III, the Highland Park shooter, allegedly attempted suicide at least twice in front of friends, only for his father to allegedly block a concerned local who identified his suicidal inclinations in a private Facebook post.
Former friends and parents have said that the lonely youngster went on a ‘downward spiral,’ attempted suicide, and talked about overdose.
Crimo’s mother, who wished to remain unidentified, claimed the 21-year-old used to visit her home often in 2016 and 2017.
She also claimed Crimo threatened and attempted suicide several times while spending time with her children, and that he battled with self-harm and suicidal ideas as early as 2016.
She characterised the then-boy as nice and quiet, and she’d never suspected he’d hurt a fly.
‘Hurt himself? Yes. But hurt someone else? No,’ the mom told the Daily Beast. ‘He was a sweet kid, but he hurt. He was very, very much a loner and depressed. And I think his emotional instability was kind of brushed under the rug by his family.’
According to the Beast, Crimo’s friend messaged his father on Facebook in 2015 after he stated “some concerning things” about overdosing. Crimo Senior, she also said, had blocked her.
George Gomez, Crimo’s parents’ attorney, told the Beast that he was “not aware” of “anything like that happening in 2016.” He also claimed that they ‘didn’t follow’ their kid on social media and were unaware of his rapping.
Crimo used the moniker Awake the Rapper to release multiple music videos. One of his videos depicts officers getting gunned down during a shooting. Another image showed him inside a classroom, wrapped with an American flag and dressed in combat gear.
According to NBC New York, he also had a Discord channel, which has since been blocked, where he allegedly posted a beheading video and chatted with a death messaging board.
The unnamed mother is now questioning how Crimo’s parents could declare there was nothing wrong with their child when she claims there were several warning flags.
‘I thought it was a joke when his uncle came out and said: “There were no signs of this. He was always this quiet kid, working in his apartment and behind the house.” When it was like he had tried killing himself twice when he was hanging out with my [children], so how could you say there was no signs of this?’
Crimo’s father even sponsored a gun permit application, despite the 2019 police reports indicating he had tried to kill himself and in a separate occasion, threatened to kill his family. Gomez said the father had arrived home after police had arrived in 2019.
‘I think there’s a lot of balls dropped, no matter which way you look at it, the mother said. ‘Parents, the government itself. I mean, if what they are saying is true on the report that happened back in 2019, why would his father sponsor him to legally purchase these guns?’
Weeks later, another mutual friend would go over to Crimo’s house and voice concern as well, the friend told the Daily Beast.
‘He felt a lot of times that his parents didn’t care about him,’ the friend told the Beast.
‘From what it sounded like, his parents worked a lot,’ the friend told the outlet. ‘If they weren’t home, they were working, and when they were home, they were resting or sleeping. So Bobby was always out doing his own thing.
‘He felt alone and misunderstood. He said a couple of times he wished he was like other kids. He was, but he didn’t think so,’ they said.
Crimo’s parents have denied ever hearing warnings about their son, Gomez told the Beast.
An April 2019 police report, obtained by the Daily Beast, showed police had performed a welfare check on Crimo and had reported he had attempted to ‘commit suicide by machete’ and was ‘known to use marijuana.’
In September 2019, police turned up again to the Highland Park residence and a police report allegedly stated he had threatened to kill his whole family.
Police confiscated 16 knives, a 12-inch dagger and a 24-inch samurai sword during the wellness check, according to the report, but returned them to Crimo’s father, who claimed they were his, which is one of the reasons why, police officers said, the young shooter passed the Red Flag law.
Even though, as the documents show, Crimo was deemed a ‘clear and present danger,’ who, ‘if granted access to a firearm or firearm ammunition poses an actual, imminent threat of substantial bodily harm to themselves or another person[s] that is articulable and significant or who will likely act in a manner dangerous to the public interest.’
Police also reportedly filed a ‘clear and present danger’ foam with the Illinois State Police. State police would later determine that Crimo did not meet the criteria to be considered a danger.
Despite the incident, Crimo’s father helped him apply for a firearm owner identification card (FOID) mere weeks later, and Crimo passed four Illinois background checks to purchase the gun he would go on to murder seven people with three years later.
Crimo’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, told Fox 32 that the process was ‘no different than signing up your kid for driver’s ed.’
‘He bought everything on his own, and they’re registered to him,’ the elder Crimo told the New York Post. ‘You know, he drove there, he ordered them, he picked them up, they did his background check on each one.’
The news came as a photo of the second gun Crimo carried on the day of the shooting was revealed. He allegedly considered using it in a second attack on another parade but changed his mind at the last minute.
Crimo also had about 60 rounds of ammunition on him, according to police.
However, a Civil Defense Attorney Stephan Blandin told the Beast that it was ‘bizarre’ for the father to sign for an ‘obviously mentally troubled kid.’
Gomez dismissed any idea of criminal charges against the father.
The skatepark mom also said Crimo grew up in an unstable home and that his parents lived in separate homes. She said the shooter’s mother wanted a divorce and to ‘move on with her kids.’
‘But I don’t think that was ever really an option for her unfortunately,’ she told the Beast. ‘I think they worried about what the outsiders thought versus what their son actually needed.’
She also said she no longer recognizes Bobby and ‘feels bad’ because he ‘needed help and couldn’t get the help,’ but she didn’t excuse his actions.
‘I think he just wanted to be loved, and there was a lot of stuff going on in the family dynamic between his mother and father. And I feel like he just wanted to be wanted and not a burden on anybody,’ she told the Beast.
Another parent Michele Rebollar – whose late son was friends with Crimo – also echoed similar statements.
‘There’s no justification, he could have got help, he could have told somebody, but if you’ve never had somebody to tell, how do you even know who to tell, if no one’s ever been there for you?’ she told the Beast.
She also stated that Crimo spoke at her son’s burial and that he no longer resembles the little boy who said her son made him feel not ‘alone anymore, like I had somebody there, like, that was actually there.’
Other court records revealed that Crimo’s parents weren’t always concerned about his safety, as one stated his mother had left her young kid in a hot car for 27 minutes when he was a toddler. His mother was eventually convicted in connection with the incident.
Crimo’s mother, Denise Pesina, and father, Bob Crimo Jr., had repeated run-ins with authorities previous to Monday’s shooting in Chicago, which killed seven people.
It’s unknown whether the hot automobile event caused Crimo any physical or mental trauma that led to the horrible gunfight.
In addition, police were summoned to his family’s house ten times due to complaints of domestic violence. Denise Pesina is accused of assaulting her husband with a screwdriver and a sneaker after he criticised her appearance.
Between 2010 and 2014, officers were summoned to the Crimo family home in Highwood nine times, often to resolve violent arguments between the youth’s mother and father, Robert Crimo Jr. and Denise Pesina.
Crimo Jr. told police responding to a domestic abuse complaint in August 2010 that Pesina had struck him in the head with her shoe after a drunken dispute.
Crimo Jr., who campaigned unsuccessfully for Mayor of Highland Park in 2019, allegedly told investigators that his relationship with Pesina was “failing” and that she was inebriated.
Meanwhile, Pesina informed police that Crimo Jr. had ‘disrespected and belittled’ her by insulting her appearance. She said that their remarks encouraged her to drink.
Another incident occurred in October 2010, when police were summoned to the residence due to a claimed altercation between Pesina and Crimo Jr.
Pesina assaulted Crimo Jr. with a screwdriver during the meeting, according to the aspiring politician. He went on to say that his wife had been ‘trash-talking’ him and had knocked all of his possessions off his dresser before bludgeoning him with the tool’s backside.
Crimo Jr., Pesina claimed, had been “making harsh things to me like always, calling me names.”
Another two calls had the parents calling the cops on one another for driving while inebriated.
The calls both developed into domestic conflicts involving police.
Crimo Jr. contacted officers in June 2011 to report that Pesina was driving drunk to pick up her daughter, Crimo’s sister.
Cops stated Pesina questioned Crimo Jr. about this, at which time Pesina obstructed the father’s exit, prompting him to contact police.
According to court records, Pesina pleaded guilty to DUI in Lake County in 2012.
According to court documents, Pesina was charged with child endangerment in 2002 after leaving Crimo III alone in a car with the windows rolled up for 27 minutes in the parking lot of a toy store.
It was around 80 degrees outside at the time of the occurrence.