Highland Park capturing particular person of curiosity left on-line path of violent imagery
Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III, the particular person of curiosity recognized by police after Monday’s capturing in a Chicago suburb left six individuals lifeless and 38 damage, left a protracted path of tributes to mass shootings and public killings on social media platforms, in keeping with quite a few profiles that seem to belong to him.
Crimo carried out as a rapper who glided by the title “Awake,” whose current music movies included depictions of mass homicide.
Crimo’s most up-to-date video posted to YouTube confirmed him within the aftermath of a faculty capturing. It ends with Crimo draping himself in an American flag. One other music video confirmed a cartoon depiction of a person sporting a shirt together with his YouTube channel’s emblem on it, holding a protracted gun and being shot by police.
The YouTube account that hosted his movies, which had beforehand been accessible to the general public, was unavailable Monday night time.
Crimo had his personal Discord server, the place followers and individuals who knew him would chat. The group featured a politics board stuffed with nihilistic political memes. The newest publish earlier than the capturing, which was posted in March, was an image of Budd Dwyer, the Pennsylvania state treasurer who shot and killed himself on dwell tv within the late Eighties, together with the caption “I want politicians nonetheless gave speeches like this.”
On Discord, followers would share posts that Crimo had product of himself. One obvious selfie Crimo took in March reads: “Cursed picture screenshot and ship to everybody or commit not alive anymore,” a reference to suicide.
After Monday’s capturing, 4chan trolls invaded the group, utilizing it as a gathering level to laud the shooter and publish memes concerning the assault. The Discord channel was shut down round 6 p.m. ET, simply hours after Crimo was named as an individual of curiosity.
Crimo additionally posted often to a message board that mentioned graphic depictions of homicide, suicide and dying. His most up-to-date publish to that message board got here final week, when he posted a video of a beheading.
Crimo didn’t often publish about main political figures on his web sites, besides for 2 posts about former President Donald Trump.
A video posted to Crimo’s YouTube web page on Jan. 2, 2021, seems to point out Crimo amongst a throng of protesters cheering for Trump’s presidential motorcade outdoors an airport. Crimo flips the telephone’s orientation to disclose his face on the finish of the video.
Crimo can be seen draped in a Trump flag in a June 27, 2021, publish on Twitter. The publish is captioned with solely the phrase “spam.”
Mark Heymann, 22, who stated he went to Highland Park Excessive College with Crimo, stated Crimo was a rapper who launched music once they have been in class collectively.
Heymann stated he doesn’t recall a lot about Crimo.“He at all times appeared a bit off, however I can’t describe it a lot past that,” he stated.
Crimo’s father, who reportedly owned comfort shops, staged an unsuccessful run for mayor of Highland Park in 2019.
This can be a growing story. Please examine again for updates.
Dennis Romero, Rima Abdelkader, Sarah Kaufman and Maya Brown contributed.