Bobby Crimo Indicted On 117 Counts In Highland Park Parade Shooting

WAUKEGAN, IL — The man accused of killing seven people and wounding nearly 50 others when he opened fire at the Highland Park July 4 parade was indicted Wednesday on 117 felony counts.

Robert Crimo III, 21, of Highwood, has been held at Lake County Jail since his arrest in Lake Forest following an eight-hour manhunt the day of the massacre.

Authorities said Crimo confessed that he "looked down his sights, aimed and opened fire at people across the street" from a rooftop overlooking the parade route at the intersection of Central Avenue and 2nd Street.

On Wednesday, Lake County prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury, which returned indictments on all charges they sought.

They include 21 counts of first-degree murder — three counts for each of the slain shooting: Katie Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin McCarthy, Steve Straus, Jacki Sundheim, Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza and Eduardo Uvaldo.

Crimo is also charged with 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, one for each person who was struck by a bullet, shrapnel or a bullet fragment, according to the Lake County State's Attorney's Office.

---

"I want to thank law enforcement and the prosecutors who presented evidence to the grand jury today," State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said, announcing the charges.

"Our investigation continues, and our victim specialists are working around the clock to support all those affected by this crime that led to 117 felony counts being filed today," he said.

After firing 83 rounds into the crowd of paradegoers, Crimo drove to Madison, Wisconsin, with another rifle and 60 more bullets and seriously contemplated using it to carry out another shooting there, authorities said.

Crimo, a Highland Park High School dropout and amateur musician, was a Firearm Owners Identification card holder who legally purchased five guns in 2020, according to state police.

Two of them, including the weapon used in the mass shooting and one found in his car at the time of his arrest, were semiautomatic assault-style rifles that have been banned in Highland Park since 2013, leading to renewed efforts to enact statewide and federal assault weapon bans.

---

Following the mass shooting, the administration of Gov. J.B. Pritzker introduced an emergency rule change to allow for the preservation of past "clear and present danger" reports, which can prevent potentially dangerous people from buying guns, after it emerged that Crimo had been the subject of one such report months before he was permitted to begin assembling his arsenal.

A preliminary hearing that had been scheduled for July 28 has been called off, and Crimo is next due to appear in court, in person Aug. 3 for an arraignment, where he will have the opportunity to enter a plea to the charges.