The man accused of killing seven people attending a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, on the Fourth of July has confessed to his role in the massacre, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III, 21, made his confession in a voluntary statement, according to officials. He has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and will likely face more counts over the dozens injured during Monday’s attack, the prosecutor announced.
“He went into details about what he had done,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart told reporters outside of the county courthouse. “He admitted to what he had done. We don’t want to speculate on motives right now.”
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Police also revealed that after the shooting, Crimo had considered carrying out another attack at a celebration in Madison, Wisconsin. Crimo arrived at the event in Wisconsin but indications are that he had not put in enough thought and research to conduct the attack, Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said. Crimo ditched his phone while in the Madison area, which was recovered by the FBI on Tuesday, Covelli said.
Crimo’s arraignment will likely be in August, and he will be represented in court by the public defender’s office, Rinehart said. “Many more charges” will be brought against Crimo, and for every person hurt in the attack, an attempted murder charge and an aggravated battery with a firearm charge will be brought against him, Rinehart said.
“All of those are class X felonies, which have obviously serious prison time associated with them, but other people were attempted to be murdered, people who were not shot,” Rinehart said. “So there are many different charges that we are reviewing with respect to the other individuals who have sadly been injured by this, frankly, who were present on the scene. They were shot at, that may also constitute an attempted murder charge.”
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Crimo had prior contact with law enforcement, police said Tuesday. The first contact was in April 2019 after a person reached out to police upon learning of a suicide attempt by Crimo, and later that year in September, a family member reported that Crimo “said he was going to kill everyone” and had a collection of knives, Covelli said.
