Investigators say Robert Crimo III took aim and fired 83 rounds at onlookers from a rooftop, pausing to reload his rifle. He then made a run for it in women’s clothing, leaving his gun behind. “He fired indiscriminately into the crowd and hit people at random,” Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen said in an exclusive interview with CBS News. It was an attack he had reportedly been planning for weeks. “There was a lot of pre-planning and he was very motivated to carry out the attack,” Jogmen said. “I immediately thought that this person could possibly get away with not being held accountable for this,” Jogmen said. “And that worry stayed with me for the first couple of hours because we had such a bad description. It wasn’t a good run.” Finding the gun is what “set this investigation on a completely different trajectory,” Jogmen said. “In this case, we knew the make, model, serial number, and then we went through the process of tracing directly to the manufacturer,” ATF Special Agent in Charge Kristen de Tineo told CBS News. All of this information allowed the ATF to identify the suspect. During the frantic manhunt, police say the suspect stopped to see an acquaintance and then drove two and a half hours to Madison, Wisconsin, where he considered carrying out another attack when he spotted a large gathering. In the car with him was another gun and about 60 rounds of ammunition. CBS News obtained a photo of the gun found in the car. The gun found in the Highland Park parade shooting the suspect’s car when he was arrested after a manhunt. CBS News Jogmen said investigators do not yet have a motive. “We really don’t have a better understanding today than we did when we started talking to him about why specifically,” he said. Police said the suspect confessed to the shooting that killed at least seven people and injured 38 others. He is being held without bail and is expected to face more charges in the coming weeks. Illinois police say the alleged gunman passed four background checks in 2020 and 2021 as he amassed an arsenal of five firearms. The first was purchased after the suspect’s father signed an authorization form. Despite two encounters with police in 2019 involving threats of violence against him or his family members and a series of disturbing posts on social media, his parents’ lawyer says they saw no warning signs. “To them, he was just their son,” attorney Steve Greenberg told CBS News. “He was a little eccentric. He was into music. He was into art. But to them, he was just their son and there were no real red flags. It’s a terrible tragedy for everybody.”

Chris Van Cleve

Kris Van Cleave is a congressional correspondent for CBS News based in Washington, DC