Will the Crimos be charged? That’s a high legal mountain to climb? It might be one that prosecutors won’t be willing to traverse since the actual shooter already confessed. Robert Crimo III shot and killed several people and wounded over 45 others when he scaled a rooftop and opened fire on paradegoers last Independence Day in Highland Park, Illinois. It capped off another predictable bloody holiday weekend in the Chicago area. Our own Julio Rosas was there covering the mayhem. Again, the tragic shooting followed a theme. The shooter was known to law enforcement, a prolific poster of violent content on social media, and he suffered from mental health issues. The kid was a nutcase since middle school.
To make matters worse, he threatened to kill his family members in 2019. He also threatened suicide that same year. This incident led to police confiscating his knives, but Mr. Crimo decided to sign off on his son’s firearm identification card (FOID), which makes no sense. FOID cards are how one can legally own guns and ammo in deep blue states. The homelife itself was also one of chaos. Police knew the address well.
Civil lawsuits will likely follow, but not criminal, even though it seems like there could be enough to at least look into charging the parents. Your son threatens to kill you. You know he has mental issues, and you sign off on a FOID card used to procure the weapons for the attack (via Fox News):
Robert E. Crimo III, a 21-year-old from Illinois who also goes by "Awake the Rapper" and is accused of killing at least 7 and injuring dozens more at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade Monday, allegedly had help from his father obtaining weapons.
Could his parents face legal consequences? A civil case is likely, according to several attorneys who spoke with Fox News Digital Wednesday. Criminal charges could be harder to prove but are not off the table.
"Negligent entrustment of dangerous weapons can be used against them on the civil side," said Steve Bertolino, the New York attorney who represents the parents of the late suspected killer Brian Laundrie. "On the criminal side, I don’t know that the criminal statutes are on par with what the public of our time seems to want to apply as the rule of law in holding persons responsible for the acts of others."
But prosecutors have grown more aggressive in their pursuit of charges against the parents of suspected mass shooters, according to Neama Rahmani, a Los Angeles trial attorney and former federal prosecutor.
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"Criminal liability will turn on the concept of ‘reasonable foreseeability,’" Rahmani told Fox News Digital. "Was it foreseeable that sponsoring a firearms application for someone who threatened to kill himself and others would lead to the deaths of others? If so, Bob Crimo can be charged with manslaughter under Illinois law."
NBC Chicago had an excellent post detailing past times when parents got charged for negligence:
The involuntary manslaughter charges filed in Michigan against James and Jennifer Crumbley made international headlines because the decision was such a departure from the norm.
Prosecutors accused the Crumbleys of failing to keep their son away from the semi-automatic rifle his father had purchased and taking no action after school officials found a drawing and written threats at the boy’s desk hours before the shooting.
"The notion that a parent could read those words and also know that their son had access to a deadly weapon that they gave him is unconscionable — it’s criminal," Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said as she announced the charges.
The Crumbleys have pleaded not guilty, and their attorneys have said they were devastated after learning their son was accused in the killings.
In May, an Illinois man was found guilty of illegal delivery of a firearm to a person who had been treated for mental illness within the past five years. Prosecutors said the father gave his son an assault-style rifle that he later used to shoot and kill four people in 2018 at a Waffle House in Tennessee, despite knowing the son had received mental health treatment.
In 2020, the mother of an Indiana teen was placed on probation for failing to remove guns from her home after her mentally ill son threatened to kill students. He fired shots inside his school in 2018. No one was injured, but the boy killed himself.
What do you think should happen to the parents?
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