Who Is Robert Crimo Jr.? Father Of Accused July 4th Parade Shooter Charged For Helping Son Pleads Guilty

Robert Crimo Jr. — the father of Highland Park parade shooting suspect Robert "Bobby" Crimo III — has accepted a plea deal that will see him serve 60 days behind bars.

Crimo Jr. entered guilty pleas inside a Waukegan, Illinois, courtroom to seven counts of misdemeanor reckless conduct in a deal that downgraded the charges from felonies to misdemeanors.

Judge George Strickland had been set to oversee his bench trial, which was to start today.

Crimo Jr. was arrested in December, accused of helping the then 21-year-old Crimo III obtain a gun license three years before a mass shooting July 4, 2022.

Crimo Jr. was indicted in late February on seven counts of reckless conduct — one for each person killed during the shooting rampage in which his son is charged.

The father will serve 60 days in jail and two years probation as part of the deal.

He must also surrender his firearms license.

Crimo III is accused of stationing himself on the roof of a business in Highland Park and opening fire on bystanders and participants in the town's annual July 4 parade.

In addition to the seven individuals killed, the mass shooting injured 48 people.

The father sponsored his son's gun license application in late 2019 — seven months after Crimo III attempted suicide and three months after a family member claimed he threatened to "kill everyone."

According to investigators, Crimo Jr. signed his son's application for a Firearm Owner's Identification card so that he could buy a gun at the age of 19.

"Parents who help their kids get weapons of war are morally and legally responsible when those kids hurt others with those weapons," Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said at the time.

Even before the deadly shooting, though, Crimo Jr. was well-known around Highland Park, a Chicago suburb. He had run for mayor of the town once, and operated a number of area convenience stores.

A date for Crimo III's trial on 21 first-degree murder counts, 48 counts of attempted murder, and 48 counts of aggravated battery will be decided at a hearing in December.

The Highland Park parade mass shooting remains one of the state's deadliest. In early 1993, seven employees were killed at the Brown's Chicken restaurant in Palatine by robbers who evaded arrest for more than nine years.