The rapper who is accused of opening fire at a Fourth of July parade, killing six people and injuring more than a dozen more, “was known to law enforcement.”
On July 4, a massacre at an Independence Day parade in the affluent Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, resulted in six fatalities and 24 injuries.
According to reports, suspect Robert ‘Bobby’ Crimo III, 22, who goes under the stage name Awake the Rapper and has more than 16,000 weekly Spotify listeners, was “known to police.”
It is yet unknown whether this was caused by the violent videos that YouTube displayed until they were removed on Monday night.
A graphic of Crimo killing people and a video of him firing bullets onto a classroom floor while wearing armour were among the music videos the artist put online last fall. This appears to be a joke about school shootings.
The rapper and YouTuber is worth $100,000.
His victims ranged in age from eight to 85, with four or five of those who were shot being thought to be youngsters.
The victims have so far been identified as 78-year-old grandfather Nicolas Toledo and married mother and synagogue teacher Jacki Sundheim.
A heartfelt homage to Sundheim was published by her synagogue.
Toledo’s family described how they were covered in his blood during the occasion, which they claim he had refused to attend.
President Joe Biden said he and his wife Jill were ‘shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day’, and vowed to continue the fight against the shooting ‘epidemic.’
After an eight-hour manhunt involving local and federal law enforcement, Crimo was captured.
Crimo was spotted in Where’s Waldo attire in 2020, showing up to a Donald Trump rally. Another image of the suspect wearing a Donald Trump flag around him has surfaced.
The Chicago Tribune described one of the demonstrations where Crimo was photographed as “tense,” but added that no arrests were made since counter-protesters attended the event. At that rally, the former president was not present.
According to the suspect’s IMDb biography, he was raised in a Highland Park, Illinois, Italian-American home as the middle child of three.
The suspect has family ties to the neighbourhood dating back to his grandfather, Robert Crimo, who was born there in 1929. 2018 saw Robert Crimo’s passing.
The suspect’s parents are identified in his obituary as Bob Jr. and Denise. The majority of the family members mentioned in the homage are based in the Highland Park region.
Crimo’s mother, Denise Pesina, 48, was previously detained on suspicion of domestic assault, and his father, Bob Sr., 58, is a local deli owner who once ran for mayor.
Her Facebook page indicates that she is interested in alternative therapies and appears to have converted to Mormonism.
Lynette Pesina, Crimo’s 27-year-old sister, is one of his two siblings. The family lives in a cosy $425,000 house in Highwood, not far from the shooting location.
The family resides in Highwood, a neighbourhood immediately north of Highland Park, along Pleasant Avenue.
Across the street from Oak Terrace Elementary School is where they live.