The man suspected of killing six people and injuring more than a dozen others during a July 4th parade in Highland Park is a Donald Trump-supporting rapper.
Robert ‘Bobby’ Crimo III, 22, who goes by the moniker Awake the Rapper, boasts more than 16,000 listeners per month on Spotify and has a net worth of $100,000.
Music videos posted by Crimo online last fall include a drawing of himself shooting people online, and a disturbing clip of himself throwing bullets on the floor of a classroom while wearing armor in what appears to be a joke about school shootings.
Police have said he was ‘known to law enforcement’ but it is not yet known if this was due to the violent videos which were hosted by YouTube until they were taken down last night.
So far, synagogue teacher Jacki Sundheim, a married mother, and grandfather Nicolas Toledo, 78, have been named as victims.
A total of 26 victims were also injured, 25 of whom suffered gunshot wounds. Six remain in hospital for treatment. The age ranges of the victims sits between eight and 85, with around four or five of those shot believed to be children.
President Joe Biden said he and his wife Jill were ‘shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day’, and vowed to continue the fight against the shooting ‘epidemic’. Kamala Harris is expected to visit Chicago today.
Crimo was arrested after an hours long manhunt that involved local and federal authorities. It has now emerged his father Bob Sr, 58, is a local deli owner who once ran for mayor, while his mom Denise Pesina, 48, was once arrested on suspicion of domestic battery.
Crimo has two siblings, including a 27 year-old sister called Lynette Pesina, with the family residing in a comfortable $425,000 home in Highwood, close to the scene of the shooting.
In 2020, Crimo was pictured attending a Donald Trump rally while dressed as Where’s Waldo.
Another picture has emerged showing the suspect wrapped in a Donald Trump flag.
