After the panicked aftermath, authorities spent nearly eight hours searching for the gunman, fearing he would continue killing, Jogmen said, offering fresh details about the carnage and what followed.
“Was it a break, was it a break?” Jogmen said, referring to the questions authorities faced during the frantic search. “Does this man intend to continue until he ends his life? Is this a man seeking escape?’
In a voluntary statement, Crimo admitted to authorities that he emptied two 30-round magazines before loading his weapon with a third and firing again, Lake County Deputy State’s Attorney Ben Dillon said Wednesday during a virtual bail hearing.
If convicted, Crimo faces up to life in prison.
Meanwhile, four days later, the motive remains unclear.
“That’s the first thing people want to know,” Jogmen said. “At this point, I don’t think I can give you a reason why based on what I’m hearing from my investigators … We’d like to have that reason out there for people to process, but I’m not sure yet that we’re there.”
As investigators work to determine what led to the shooting, the Highland community continues to mourn those killed and injured in the attack.
Reuniting injured couple ‘was pure joy’
Among the wounded is an 8-year-old boy who is paralyzed from the waist down after operations he underwent in recent days.
Cooper Roberts attended the parade with his mother Keely and twin brother Luke, who were also injured in the shooting, family spokesman Anthony Loisi said Thursday during a press conference.
Cooper was shot in the chest and his spinal cord was severed, Loisi said. He was heavily sedated Thursday and placed on a ventilator in critical but stable condition after undergoing surgery to close his abdominal area.
“It’s going to be a new normal for him moving forward,” Loisy said. “It sounds (like) he’s going to have significant trouble going forward, especially with walking.”
Luke was wounded by shrapnel and was released from the hospital after treatment. Keely Roberts also underwent multiple surgeries after being shot in the leg and around the foot, Loisi said.
Meanwhile, a married couple who were wounded in the shooting were reunited at the hospital after her wife came out of surgery, said Samantha Whitehead, a friend close to the family.
Stephen Kolpack was shot in the leg and released, while his wife, Zoe, suffered a broken femur, Whitehead said.
“It was just pure joy, like you could just feel the love,” Whitehead told CNN. “I think you can just feel the relief from both of them that… they’re going to be okay. Their kids will be fine. They’re just really grateful. It’s like the best case scenario of a terrible, terrible situation.”
Whitehead, who describes herself as Zoe’s best friend, set up a GoFundMe to cover the family’s medical expenses. Those who did not survive include Irina and Kevin McCarthy, 35 and 37, respectively, who are the parents of a 2-year-old boy found alive at the scene of the shooting.
The other victims killed were Catherine Goldstein, 64, of Highland Park; Jacqueline Sundheim, 63, of Highland Park; Stephen Strouse, 88, of Highland Park; and Nicolas Toledo-Zaragosa, 78, of Morelos, Mexico, and Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, of Waukegan.
The shooter had run-ins with the police
In April 2019, Highland Park police received a call that Crimo had tried to take his own life with a machete, and mental health professionals were involved, according to a police report documenting the incident.
A few months later, a relative reported in September 2019 that Crimo had threatened family members that he would “kill them all” and had a collection of bladed objects in his closet, another police report showed. Police confiscated the collection, and the suspect’s father — Bobby Crimo Jr. — picked it up later that day at the police station.
After that second report, Highland Park police filed a “Clear and Present Danger” complaint with the Illinois State Police about what happened, the police report shows.
No arrests were made during the incident, as there were no signed complaints against Crimo. Family members are reluctant to file additional complaints, state police said.
Since those incidents, Crimo’s firearms purchases between June 2020 and September 2021 have undergone four background checks, which include checks on the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System, state police said.
He legally purchased five firearms, including rifles, handguns and possibly a shotgun, according to Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Deputy Chief Chris Covelli.
Crimo’s application for a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card, or FOID, was sponsored by his father because his son was under 21. It was not denied because there was “insufficient grounds to establish a clear and present danger” at the time, state police said.
There is no criminal liability for sponsoring someone’s FOID, Lake County District Attorney Eric Rinehart CNN said Thursday, adding that the office was still reviewing evidence “regarding who knew what and when.”
“There are different ways to look at potential criminal liability in this case,” Rinehart said. “There is no violation of the law per se if you vouch for someone on a FOID card and they end up doing something horrible like this.” But having said that, we continue to investigate the case and continue to explore all possibilities. “
CNN’s calls to Crimo Jr. have not been returned. His attorney, Steve Greenberg, told CNN they would not be making any further public comments, “but the parents will continue to speak with law enforcement and assist them.”
CNN’s Adrienne Broadus, Jason Kravarik and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
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