Massacre in Illinois, police: “Attack planned for weeks, the killer tried to escape dressed as a woman”. The shadows on the young man’s father

Less than 24 hours after the Chicago Highland Park massacre, disturbing details emerge. The first: the attack on the 4th of July parade had been planned for weeks. The local police supported him at a press conference. The second: Robert Crimo, the 21-year-old killer who carried out the attack, had bought a high-capacity rifle, similar to the Ar-15, the most used weapon in mass killings. And he had done so legally as confirmed by the mayor of Highland Park, Nancy Rotering, in an interview with CNN. It is not clear, however, where the attacker obtained the weapon given that Illinois has one of the most restrictive laws in the United States on the matter. Robert Crimo had two rifles. The first citizen also stated that the killer fired about 30 shots. Six people were killed and about thirty were injured in the attack launched yesterday morning by the young man, formally indicted today.

By now, we know a lot about him: «Awake the rapper», as he called himself, had long ago launched his campaign of violence on social media where he posted comments praising Donald Trump and videos of massacres. And where he made a lot of money with his “extreme” rap. After shooting from a rooftop on partygoers, he mingled with the crowd wearing women’s clothing. The intent, police explained, was to specifically hide the tattoos on his face.

The details and today’s news refer not only to the killer but also to the figure of the young man’s father, Bob Crimo. That in 2019 he had tried to run for mayor, calling himself a “person among the people”, but had been defeated by the current mayor, the Democrat Nancy Rotering. Looking at the social profile, in the Twitter account of the killer’s father, a “like” emerges for a post published just three days after the massacre at the primary school in Uvalde, Texas, where nineteen children and two teachers were killed. Crimo had supported the message that said, “Protect the Second Amendment as if your life depended on it.” Among the accounts followed by the boy’s father is that of “President Trump”, banned from Twitter a year and a half ago.
In 2020, his son also took part in a Trump rally. In another image, the father is seen wearing a bandana praising the tycoon.