Mr. Crimo was arrested after a brief chase near Lake Forest, a suburb of Chicago, about six miles from the scene of the massacre, hours after shots were fired from a high-powered rifle into a crowd enjoying the holiday. The shooter appeared to have taken up a sniper position on a rooftop before opening fire and sparking scenes of chaos as people ran for cover for their lives.
Who is Robert Crimo?
Mr Crimo goes by the nickname Bobby and is an amateur rapper. He had allegedly uploaded a series of videos online several months before the shooting, filled with violent images and depictions of mass murder. He goes by the stage name ‘Awake the Rapper’ and has more than 16,000 listeners a month on his Spotify page with a net worth of $100,000 (£82,645). His social media footprint shows that he is a video game enthusiast who appeared to fantasize about mass shootings. A recent video posted by Mr. Crimo on YouTube appeared to show the aftermath of a school shooting with him dressed in an American flag. In another animated video titled ‘Toy Soldier’, he appeared to show his own death. The video showed a man, apparently impersonating Mr Crimo, wearing a black T-shirt with the logo of his YouTube channel and standing in a pool of blood during a confrontation with police. The video begins by showing a student texting in class while Mr Crimo raps “f*** this world” with visuals showing a heavily armed gunman opening fire inside a school. A drawing of a man lying covered in blood can be seen in this still image taken from a video (Robert Crimo via REUTERS) In another video, in which he appears in a classroom wearing a black bicycle helmet, he says he is “like a sleepwalker. I know what I have to do,” adding that “everything has led to this. Nothing can stop me, not even myself.” The YouTube channel that posted the videos was unavailable Monday night after being publicly accessible for months. In 2020, he was pictured attending a Donald Trump rally dressed as the main character from ‘Where’s Waldo?’ In another photo on Twitter, he was seen wrapped in a Trump flag as a cape. He was also photographed wearing an FBI hat and liked a video of Joe Biden. Mr. Crimo had his own Discord server called “SS” where he chatted with people. It has since been removed. According to NBC news, the community featured a political painting with many nihilistic memes. The most recent community post before the shooting was in March, showing a photo of Budd Dwyer, the Pennsylvania state treasurer who shot himself on live television in the late 1980s with the caption, “May politicians continue to they give speeches like this.” Robert Crimo is the middle child of three brothers and his IMBD page describes him as a rapper, singer, songwriter, actor and director from Chicago. (Robert Crimo via REUTERS) Discord users shared photos of Mr Crimo with a selfie that appeared to reference suicide. His caption read: “Damn screenshot and send to all or commit to not being alive anymore (sic).” According to the FBI, Crimo has tattoos on his face that show four count marks with a line running through his right cheek and a line above his left eyebrow that reads “Awake.” Mr. Crimo also has tattoos of red roses and green leaves on his neck.
The family of Robert Crimo
Mr. Crimo’s father has been identified as Bob Crimo Sr., 58, a local deli owner who once ran for mayor of Highland Park in 2019 but lost by a two-to-one margin to the incumbent. Days after the Uvalde Elementary School shooting in Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting, a Twitter account purported to belong to Mr. Crimo Sr. liked a pro-Second Amendment tweet. “Protect the Second Amendment like your life depends on it,” the May 28 tweet read. His mother has been identified as Denis Pesina, 48, a Mormon who gives alternative therapies, the Daily Mail reported. Crimo appeared at a school on a screen from a social media video (Robert Crimo via REUTERS) Mr. Crimo’s IMDb page describes him as the middle child of three siblings in an Italian-American family in Highland Park, Illinois. His uncle, Paul Crimo, told Fox 23 Chicago that the family saw no “warning signs” that he could have been involved in the shooting. “I saw no signs of suffering. And if I saw signs I would say something,” his uncle said. He said his nephew was a “YouTube rapper” who once worked at the Panera Bread bakery.
