Parade Gunman Went To Another July 4 Celebration, Contemplated Second Attack

Waukegan, IL – The 21-year-old Highland Park gunman drove to another Independence Day celebration across the state line in Wisconsin after his rampage on paradegoers and “contemplated” committing a second mass shooting before he was arrested.

Lake County Chief Deputy Christopher Covelli, the spokesman for the Major Crimes Task Force, said that after 21-year-old Robert “Bobby” Crimo III opened fire on the July 4th parade in Highland Park from a nearby rooftop, he fled the area and found himself in the midst of another holiday celebration, FOX News reported.

“While he was driving, he located this celebration occurring in the Madison area, he contemplated another attack with the firearm he had in his car,” Chief Deputy Covelli told reporters at a press conference with Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart on Wednesday.

He said that Crimo told investigators that although he still had another AR-15 style rifle and about 60 rounds of ammunition left, the gunman decided he hadn’t done enough research and planning to pull off the second massacre, FOX News reported.

The gunman still had the second weapon and ammunition in his vehicle when he was captured just 20 minutes away from Highland Park in Lake Forest at about 7 p.m. on July 4.

“There are indications that he didn’t put enough planning forward to commit another attack,” the chief deputy said.

Crimo allegedly confessed the shooting to investigators after he was taken into custody, FOX News reported.

Rinehart told the court on July 6 that the weapon the gunman used slaughter people watching a parade on the street below him was a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Officials have said that Crimo had been preplanning his shooting spree at the Highland Park parade for weeks ahead of time, CBS News reported.

“He went into details about what he had done. He admitted to what he had done,” Rinehart told outside of the county courthouse in Waukegan after Crimo went before the judge on Wednesday. “We don’t want to speculate on motives right now.”

Rinehart told the judge at the gunman’s hearing that Crimo had unloaded one 30-round magazine into the 4th of July crowd, the reloaded another magazine and emptied that one as well, CBS News reported.

The prosecutor said that the gunman reloaded with a third magazine and began shooting again but didn’t completely empty it before he fled the scene.

Seven people were killed and at least 35 more were wounded by the gunman’s rampage, CBS News reported.

Crimo is facing seven charges of first-degree murder for killing 64-year-old Katherine Goldstein, 37-year-old Kevin McCarthy, 35- year-old Irina McCarthy, 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim, 88-year-old Stephen Straus, 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, and 69-year-old Eduardo Uvaldo.

Prosecutors said that “many, many” additional charges would be added soon.

The judge ordered him held without bond, CBS News reported.

Authorities said on Monday that the accused gunman dressed up in women’s clothing in order to make a getaway from his rooftop perch after he opened fire on the crowd of people below.

Police said that investigators think the disguise helped obscure his facial tattoos during the chaos after the shooting, CBS News reported.

Crimo was known online as “Awake the Rapper” and had posted a number of amateur music videos to YouTube and Spotify, according to The Washington Post.

Some of the videos that the gunman posted appeared to show that he had been planning the massacre on July 4 for months.

The Washington Post reported that Crimo had posted videos that had a computer-drawn image of a figure wearing tactical gear and shooting a rifle, with a person kneeling with their hands raised apparently begging for mercy, and another person lying on the ground.

In another video, Crimo appeared to be wearing a helmet and vest inside a classroom next to an American flag as a voiceover read a disturbing message.

“I need to leave now, I need to just do it. It is my destiny. Everything has led up to this; nothing can stop me, not even myself,” the gunman said in the video.

One of the videos appeared to show Crimo at a rally for former President Donald Trump and he had posted pictures of himself to social media draped in a Trump flag and Make America Great Again (MAGA) gear.

Outraged people online were quick to label the gunman a “Trumper,” but The Washington Post reported that it was unclear from the variety of postings what sort of political leanings the shooter had.