Father of alleged Highland Park shooter makes statement with T-Shirt as he arrives in court

The father of the alleged gunman in the Highland Park Fourth of July parade shooting arrived in court as he was expected to report to jail Wednesday, but he made a statement with his attire as he entered the building.

Robert Crimo Jr. walked into the Lake County courthouse in Waukegan for a hearing around 9 a.m. Wednesday.

He entered the building wearing a shirt that read "I'm a political pawn." On the back of his shirt were the words "laws," "facts" and "reality."

When asked as he entered the courthouse if he had anything to say to the families of the victims killed in the Fourth of July mass shooting, Crimo Jr. said he had "no comment."

“After the first of the year, I’ll make a statement," he said.

Once in court, Crimo Jr. was ordered by a judge to turn his shirt inside out, calling it a violation of court decorum. The judge threatened to hold Crimo Jr. in contempt if he violated any other rules.

Crimo Jr. was accused of helping his teenage son obtain a gun license even after he had threatened violence. Crimo Jr. was charged with seven counts of reckless conduct — one for each person his son, Robert Crimo III, is accused of killing in Highland Park on Independence Day last year. Each count carries a maximum three-year prison term, but the father accepted a plea deal moments before his trial was set to begin.

“We were able to get criminal liability for the first time in Illinois and one of the few times in the country at 2.5 years from the reckless act, which was the sponsorship of the FOID," said Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart.

Crimo Jr. agreed to plead guilty to seven misdemeanor reckless conduct counts, with a sentencing of two years probation, 60 days in jail and 100 hours of community service.

As part of the deal, Crimo Jr. also must surrender his FOID card, and has agreed to not sponsor any minors for FOID cards in the future.

"Cities and towns and villages have endured the anguish of mass shootings, and there have been very few parents who have been held accountable for the actions of their children," Rinehart said at the time. "That era has come to an end. Today, the legal system has found Robert Crimo Jr. bears responsibility for endangering so many and he himself has agreed that this was a crime."

"Today we know the father of the Highland Park shooter will receive punishment for that decision that he made," Reinhart continued. "Parents bear forceful responsibility for their decisions to allow children access to firearms, especially when they are acutely aware of the potential consequences to themselves into society."

In 2019, at the age of 19, Crimo III was too young to apply for his own gun license, but he could apply with the sponsorship of a parent or guardian. His father sponsored his application, even though just months earlier a relative reported to police that Crimo III had a collection of knives and had threatened to “kill everyone.”

Crimo Jr. was arrested in December 2022, and initially pleaded not guilty. Defense attorney George Gomez has called the charges against Crimo Jr. “baseless and unprecedented.”

Anti-gun violence advocates say they are encouraged that police and prosecutors are investigating anyone who may have contributed to the attack, but legal experts say criminal liability can be hard to prove against a shooter’s parent or guardian. More often, they face civil lawsuits where legal standards of proof are less stringent.

But there are exceptions. In Michigan, a prosecutor charged the parents of a then-15-year-old boy with involuntary manslaughter in December 2021 after their son was charged in the fatal shooting of four students at his high school. They face trial Jan. 23. Their son pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism charges and is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 8.

Crimo Jr.'s son faces 21 first-degree murder counts, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery. Potential evidence — prosecutors say Crimo III admitted he was the gunman when he was arrested hours after the shooting — is voluminous. No trial date has been set in his case.