Did Father of Highland Park Mass Murderer Lie to State Police?

Two days after seven people were murdered and dozens injured at a Highland Park, Illinois parade on July 4th, jcoydenreports has learned that the father of the alleged shooter may have lied to Illinois State Police about his son’s mental capacity. Robert Crimo Sr. sponsored his son’s application for a Firearm Owner Identification card (FOID) despite knowing his son was mentally unstable due to previous police contacts at the Crimo home. His son, Robert Crimo III had threatened to kill his father and other family members and at one pointed threatened suicide. Police responded to the Crimo home twice in 2019.

“Illinois State Police (ISP) received a Clear and Present Danger report on the subject from the Highland Park Police Department,” read a statement from the ISP. “The report was related to threats the subject made against his family. There were no arrests made in the September 2019 incident and no one, including family, was willing to move forward on a complaint nor did they subsequently provide information on threats or mental health that would have allowed law enforcement to take additional action. Additionally, no Firearms Restraining Order was filed, nor any order of protection.”

Questions have been raised on how Crimo III, who is currently sitting in the Lake County Jail without bond, was able to get a FOID card to begin with. Illinois residents who seek to legally own a firearm, must apply for the state issued permit. Applicants must be 21 in order to be eligible, but if they can get a parent or guardian to sponsor them, a person under the age of 21 may also be eligible for a FOID card. That is what happened in the Crimo case.

“At that time of the September 2019 incident, the subject did not have a FOID card to revoke or a pending FOID application to deny. Once this determination was made, Illinois State Police involvement with the matter was concluded,” the statement from ISP continued. “Then, in December of 2019, at the age of 19, the individual applied for a FOID card. The subject was under 21 and the application was sponsored by the subject’s father. Therefore, at the time of FOID application review in January of 2020, there was insufficient basis to establish a clear and present danger and deny the FOID application.”

Police had responded to the Crimo home earlier in April of 2019 when Crimo III was threatening to kill himself. The matter was handled by mental health professionals, according to Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli. He added that police later removed 16 edged weapons from the home while responding to the incident in September. Crimo III had amassed a cache of 14 knives, a dagger and sword that were all confiscated. Despite these two red flag incidents, Crimo Jr. sponsored the FOID application for his son.

This new information is already drawing comparisons to the Sandy Hook murderer Adam Lanza. Despite having a history of mental health illnesses and over his own father’s objections, Lanza’s mother, Nancy Lanza, introduced her son to firearms and would often shoot semiautomatic rifles with him. In December of 2012, Adam Lanza would gain access to one of his mother’s firearms and shoot her in the head. He then proceeded to Sandy Hook Elementary School where he murdered 26 people, including 20 six and seven year-olds.

On the FOID application, there is an additional affidavit that must be completed and signed by the parent or guardian sponsoring any applicant under the age of 21, in addition to being notarized. It reads the following:

“I hereby give my consent for this minor applicant to possess and acquire firearms and firearm ammunition and understand I shall be liable for any damages resulting from the minor applicant’s use of firearms or firearm ammunition.”

The person giving the consent also confirms that the person for whom they are sponsoring has no known mental health issues that would disqualify them from owning a firearm in Illinois. By signing the application for his son, Crimo Jr. has now opened up himself to litigation and possibly a criminal investigation, according to Illinois law.

Crimo Jr. and his wife Diane are now being represented by Attorney Steven Greenberg. The attorney told the New York Post that the elder Crimo did not have any knowledge about the seized knives because his son was living with his mother at the time. He also claimed neither of Crimo III’s parents knew of their son’s online activities. Paul Crimo, the uncle of the alleged shooter was also quick to say the family had no clue what Crimo III was up to. His uncle said his nephew lived in a unit behind him but that he saw no signs of trouble.

While the family is making the statements, the public isn’t buying it. Social media is full of people saying it is impossible for Crimo III’s family not to have thought anything could be off with him. His physical appearance alone was an indication of something being amiss for one of his former high school classmates who spoke with jcoydenreports on the condition of anomotity.

“He was a weird dude,” said the classmate. “He was always into violent images and videos. He would rap these violent lyrics and try to get people to listen to him but most people didn’t. It doesn’t surprise me that he would do this because he was into this kind of violent stuff,” said the classmate who graduated in 2019.

If others can see the potential warning signs with people like Lanza and Crimo III, why is it so difficult for family members to see these same violent traits? Lanza’s father knew something was off with his son and started seeking treatment for him when his son was 11. But he also confessed that he and Lanza’s mom may have downplayed just how serious their son’s illness was.

“Parents often resist prescribed courses of treatment for mental illness,” according to Howard Zonana, the director of the Psychiatry and Law Division at the Yale Medical School, which gave the first medical diagnosis of mental illness for Adam Lanza. “Several factors could influence such a reaction, including denial or a belief that one’s case is simply not extreme enough to be treated by medicine. There is also a sense of embarrassment that some parents feel about having a child with severe mental illnesses.”

The Illinois’ FOID card process has come under scrutiny several times in recent years. A state audit conducted in 2012 concluded there were several bureaucratic loopholes along with erroneous and incomplete data that could allow the seriously mental ill and others to keep or get a FOID card to buy firearms and ammunition. The audit also identified faulty reporting, which  allowed ineligible applicants or those who FOID privileges should have been revoked, to get or keep a FOID card. On July 21, 2020, the Legislative Audit Commission adopted Resolution Number 155 requiring a management audit of the Illinois State Police’s administration of the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act (430 ILCS 65) and the Firearm Concealed Carry Act (430 ILCS 66) for 2018 and 2019. The Resolution contained eight determinations and recommendations to addressing concerns in the audit.