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In a rare move, officials announced charges Friday against the father of the gunman accused of fatally shooting seven people at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
Robert Crimo, Jr. faces seven counts of felony reckless conduct, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said in a press conference.
Crimo took a “reckless and unjustified risk” when he signed the application for his son’s firearm owners ID card in December of 2019, Rinehart said. At the time, Crimo’s son was 19 and could not obtain a FOID card or firearm “without his father’s assistance,” he said.
“He knew what he knew, and he signed the form anyway. This was criminally reckless and a contributing cause to the bodily harm suffered by the victims of July 4th,” Rinehart said.
Crimo likely faces up to three years in prison on the charges, Rinehart said. Each count faces up to three years, and they typically run concurrently, he said.
Highland Park:Fourth of July parade shooting leaves another community traumatized – and transformed
Oxford:Michigan school shooting is ‘so egregious,’ the suspect’s parents are charged. That’s rare, experts say.
The parents or guardians of a high-profile mass shooting suspect are rarely charged in connection with a massacre. But the charges Friday come a year after the parents of the Michigan teen who killed four students and injured others at Oxford High School were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting. They’ve been in jail since then as a state appeals court considers an appeal.
