Bob Crimo, Accused Highland Park Shooter's Dad, Declares Bankruptcy

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Victims and survivors of the July 4, 2022, Highland Park parade shooting who sued the father of the alleged gunman are unlikely to ever recover a cent from him.

Weeks before pleading guilty to misdemeanor reckless conduct charges for signing off on his son's application for a license to buy a gun, Bob Crimo filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

According to his filing, Crimo owes more than $1.6 million in unpaid bills, loans, taxes and legal judgments against him.

That sum does not include the money he owes on his Highland Park house or potential future judgments in pending civil lawsuits filed on behalf of people who his son is accused of shooting.

As part of the Chapter 7 process, all of Crimo's eligible assets are due to be liquidated and his remaining debts can be discharged, regardless of what happens in the pending litigation filed by shooting survivors against him, his son, two gun shops and the gunmaker Smith & Wesson.

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Crimo was released from the Lake County Jail last week after serving 28 days behind bars as part of a negotiated plea deal.

On the eve of his trial, prosecutors offered to drop felony charges in exchange for Crimo agreeing to the brief jail sentence, two years of probation and 100 hours of community service.

As of his Oct. 12 bankruptcy filing, Crimo was employed at a nonprofit thrift store operator in Milwaukee earning less than $825 a month after taxes.

Crimo reported owning no car, no investments, no pets, no jewelry and two handguns, which he is forbidden from legally possessing until after his probation. He had just $230 in his bank accounts and $30 in cash, according to the filing.

His Highwood residence is currently in foreclosure, and a bank is seeking to repossess his foreclosed Highland Park house, the childhood home of his accused shooter son and the residence of his wife at the time of the shooting.

Crimo has fallen more than $100,000 behind on his mortgage payments, with unpaid bills dating all the way back to April 2019, according to a motion from HSBC Bank.

He now owes nearly $515,000 on the house, which is valued at less than $388,000 in his bankruptcy filing. His attorney, who has not responded to a request for comment on the matter, amended it last month to clarify Crimo planned to surrender the property to the bank.

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The foreclosed two-story home the bank is seeking to repossess and sell is located less than a half-mile from the epicenter of last year's deadly shooting.

Authorities said the gunman dropped a rifle at the scene and headed to the house immediately after the shooting. He then drove a car from there to the Madison, Wisconsin, area with another semiautomatic rifle before getting arrested upon his return more than eight hours after the shooting.

The trial of alleged shooter on 117 felony counts — including the murders of Katie Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacki Sundheim, Nicolás Toledo and Eduardo Uvaldo — is due to begin on Feb. 26.

Last week, the 23-year-old Highland Park High School dropout and aspiring musical artist fired the public defenders assigned to his case, began acting as his own attorney and invoked his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial for the first time.