As former friends and classmates tell reporters they saw not signs that mass shooting suspect Bobby Crimo would turn violent, his videos and even a painting on the back of his parents home say otherwise.
Crimo is behind bars, accused of being the gunman who opened fire Monday on a Fourth of July parade in an affluent Chicago suburb, killing six people and wounding dozens more. Police say he disguised himself as a woman to escape the shooting scene, leaving the rifle he used behind. Investigators traced that rifle to him.
Painting on side of house has same head as what is on shooter's t-shirt in one of the online videos. pic.twitter.com/ky2IwDa9zC
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) July 5, 2022
Crimo’s family has lived in Highland Park for years, neighbors say. His father owns a small business there and ran for mayor in 2019, losing to the incumbent by a 2 to 1 margin.
NewsNation reported Brian Entin stood on a neighbor’s balcony to get a view of the life-sized green and black figure with a smiley face head and holding a rifle.
A video reportedly taken from one of Crimo’s social media accounts shows him creating the smiley face soldier, beneath giant words painted on the wall saying “Gods Not Dead.” It’s not clear when the painting was made, but the words had been painted over by the time Entin got a look at the smiley face man.
— Cammie Clark (@eimmac) July 5, 2022
Entin also reported that Crimo wears a smiley face shirt in some of his videos. The smiley face figure also appears in one of his music videos, where he performs as Awake the Rapper.
Paul Crimo, Crimo’s uncle, said that he saw no “warning signs” from his nephew, according to WFLD.
“I saw no signs of trouble. And if I did see signs I would have said something,” Paul Crimo said.
Many of Crimo’s videos appear to show him armed or in tactical gear, The Daily Beast said. One shows a shooter going into a school and opening fire, then later lying in a pool of blood.
One neighbor, who requested anonymity, said that he frequently rode around the neighborhood on an electric bicycle while blasting loud heavy metal music and that he once had a car with “pussymobile” written across the back.
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[Featured image: Awake the Rapper]
