A gunman opened fire on a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing at least six and leaving 24 injured. The shooter used a high-powered rifle and reportedly shot from a sniper position on a roof. A manhunt is on, but the police have named Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III as a suspect.
The 22-year-old was reportedly seen driving a 2010 silver Honda Fit.
Born on September 20, 2000, Crimo is from Chicago, and is better known by his stage name “Awake the Rapper”. The artist, who’s on Spotify, has tracks like “By the Pond”, “KIA”, and “deja vu, a poem for you”.
A Twitter user posted a video that Crimo allegedly put up recently. It features a voiceover saying “I know what I have to do, not only for me but for everyone else”. The user pointed out to the cryptic nature of the words.
He has also reportedly uploaded gaming and skateboarding videos on other social media accounts, which were taken down at one point. The alleged shooter’s music is characterized by soft vocals or fast-paced rap with an accompanying LoFi or trap beat.
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Crimo’s social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram seem to have been taken down after the police named him a “person of interest”. However, a Twitter user shared his last post on his Facebook page, which started drawing comments after the shooting.
The rapper had said, “You’re all sinners”.
Another Twitter user shared a look at Crimo’s Discord server, where there’s a picture of a group of tortoises eating a creature which seems to be a rabbit.
An attendee at the Highland Park parade told WGN TV that the shooter “was very military-style, methodical in the way he was crouched and shooting”.
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The Crimo family has had long ties to Highland Park with an obituary for the suspect’s grandfather, Robert “Bob” Crimo Sr., mentioning that the other members of Crimo’s family are Bob Jr., his father, and four other siblings.
In 2013, the Chicago Tribune reported that Bob Crimo Jr, and his wife Denise, had opened Bob’s Pantry and Deli in Highland Park, and at the time, the shooting suspect’s father had noted “Highland Park provides a safe, clean and supportive environment for family-oriented businesses to operate”.
