Sniper kills at least 6 at Chicago Suburb July 4th parade

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Kruglanski said this kind of desire for fame and social worth is neither a sign of mental illness nor psychological pathology. It is something much more fundamental, he argued, and stems from the universal human quest for self-worth, and the hunger for acknowledgment and respect.

“The quest for significance is the most important human motive, the most important social motive – to have dignity, to be somebody, to matter, to gain attention,” he said. “And unfortunately, violence is one way, a kind of primordial way, of doing that."

“This has been exacerbated by the fact that these shooters are gaining tremendous media attention, sometimes more than TV stars and film stars. And therefore they feel that doing it is a surefire way of gaining status and significance,” Kruglanski told USA TODAY.
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"A 'quest for significance'

Many mass shooters, especially young males in America, are driven by such an all-consuming desire to become recognized, or even famous, that it becomes a form of extremist radicalization, said Kruglanski, who directs the university’s Motivated Cognition Laboratory. At the lab, his team uses experiments, neuroscience techniques, computer modeling and text analyses to study what causes violent extremism.

Kruglanski said this kind of desire for fame and social worth is neither a sign of mental illness nor psychological pathology. It is something much more fundamental, he argued, and stems from the universal human quest for self-worth, and the hunger for acknowledgment and respect.

“The quest for significance is the most important human motive, the most important social motive – to have dignity, to be somebody, to matter, to gain attention,” he said. “And unfortunately, violence is one way, a kind of primordial way, of doing that."

“This has been exacerbated by the fact that these shooters are gaining tremendous media attention, sometimes more than TV stars and film stars. And therefore they feel that doing it is a surefire way of gaining status and significance,” Kruglanski told USA TODAY.

This quest for significance and social worth appears acutely in adolescence, he said, when the momentous life transition between childhood and adulthood is complicated by soaring hormones, turbulent emotions and gnawing uncertainty.

“The fact that they're getting younger just suggests that people of all ages are picking up on that idea that if you feel insignificant, if you feel frustrated, if you feel threatened or anxious about your place in the world, there is a way for you to becoming a superstar in the course of a few hours, by picking up a gun and shooting up people.”

Social media platforms that put a premium on popularity reinforce that narrative.

Kruglanski describes this online groupthink as a form of radicalization and extremism because the shooters, not unlike suicide bombers, are so driven by this quest that they completely disregard the fact that the victims are innocent people, including children.

“All that is suppressed," he said. "It is forgotten at the time, where the only thing that counts is how to feed the quest for significance. And unfortunately, I think it's spreading."
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An 'echo chamber' of violence

Brian Murphy, a former top FBI and Department of Homeland Security official, blamed much of the spike in young U.S. male mass shooters on social media, including Facebook, Twitter and the now-ubiquitous TikTok videos devoured by those under the age of 25.

“We cannot underestimate the ways in which social media serves to reinforce beliefs, including extreme violent ones,” said Murphy, who ran three of the largest investigative social media platforms for the FBI and then headed DHS's social media intelligence branch during his 26 years in law enforcement. Since retiring last September, he has run similar operations at the UK-based private firm Logically.

“This is not a new phenomenon, but the trend is accelerating, and the outcomes are more deadly,” said Murphy, whose company works with private and government clients to weed out online extremism. “Young men find, in a self-imposed ever-shrinking online environment, an echo chamber of like-minded violent types who push out the people they do not agree with."

Among their group of angry peers, a potential mass shooter's grievances are normalized and even encouraged. Most participants in this kind of feedback loop will never act out physically. But some, Murphy said, become so detached from reality that they become convinced that they alone "have found out what must be done.”

And often, “what must be done” to correct some perceived injustice, is going on a shooting rampage and gaining the credit for addressing it, Murphy told USA TODAY.

By the time they are moved to action, young mass shooters are often convinced they have nothing to lose, Murphy said, in part based on Internet-driven narratives and groupthink.

“It is evident to me that unless something is done to change this trend line," he said, "it will only get worse.”

Schweit, the former FBI active shooter coordinator, said she believes a different approach is needed given how different the new threat is from the traditional workplace attacks.

"The concern that I have, as a person who works in this field, is that we have more younger shooters but we have less reporting by their peers and family members – and they are the only ones who are going to be able to help us kind of quell this increasing onslaught," said Schweit, who retired from the FBI five years ago to focus full-time on how to better educate American communities in identifying and stopping mass killers before they strike.
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USA TODAY
Why are mass shooters getting younger and deadlier? Experts have theories
Josh Meyer, USA TODAY
Thu, July 7, 2022 at 2:00 AM
https://news.yahoo.com/why-mass-shooter ... 04293.html
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... ?gnt-cfr=1
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The suspected Highland Park shooter’s father doesn’t believe he’s culpable in the attack that killed seven people and wounded dozens more.

Bobby Crimo Jr. told ABC News that there was “not an inkling, warning” before his son, Robert Crimo III, allegedly opened fire with a rifle from a rooftop at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago on Monday.

He says the attack left him “shocked” and doesn’t know of a potential motive.

“That’s what I’d like to ask him when I see him,” Crimo Jr. told ABC. “Whatever was going on in his head at the time … to go kill and hurt innocent people is just senseless.”

The suspect’s father says he spoke with Crimo III for almost an hour on the night before the shooting, telling ABC News that his son was in a “great mood.”

Crimo Jr. confirmed to ABC that he filled out a consent form for his son’s firearms owner’s license, which will be investigated by authorities. He reportedly filled out the form in 2019.

“Do I regret that? No, not three years ago — signing a consent form to go through the process … that’s all it was,” he told ABC. “Had I purchased guns throughout the years and given them to him in my name, that’s a different story. But he went through that whole process himself.”

Crimo Jr. says he knows some of the victims who were wounded in the shooting, and said his “heart goes out to all of the families that were affected.”

Highland Park Fourth of July parade suspect Robert Crimo III legally bought the gun he allegedly used to shoot dozens of people Monday, but investigators are looking into what role his father and home life may have played leading up to the incident.

In remarks Wednesday, Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly said an investigation was underway but said issues of potential liability and culpability for the suspect’s father would be settled in court and not by investigators.

"There’s probably going to be a civil litigation," he said. "There is ongoing criminal prosecution, criminal investigation…That determination and the answer to that question is something that will have to be decided in court."

"Issues of culpability, liability, who may have responsibility in certain circumstances, are all part and parcel of that process so making a conclusionary statement and Illinois State Police weighing in on that is not appropriate for us," Kelly said. "That process has to weigh out, the court process."

Legal experts from around the country are watching the case closely.

"A criminal case here would be an uphill battle, to put it lightly," Duncan Levin, the managing partner of the New York law firm Levin and Associates who has represented disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and convicted con-woman Anna "Delvey" Sorokin, told Fox News Digital. "My suspicion is that opening an investigation here is more political than anything else."

Despite two police visits to the family’s home in 2019, one involving a threat of suicide and the other an alleged threat to kill his family, the elder Crimo signed an affidavit that allowed his then-19-year-old son to apply for a state Firearms Ownership ID card, or FOID.

FOID cards are mandatory for Illinois residents who wish to legally own firearms, and applicants under the age of 21 must also submit a parent’s written and notarized consent to apply.

State police guidelines require that a person must have "been adjudicated by a court as a mental defective or ordered by a court, board or authorized entity to in-patient or out-patient mental health treatment" to be ruled ineligible for a FOID card. Other disqualifications include conviction of a firearms offense or domestic battery, or any felonies.

The two police calls resulted in no charges against the younger Crimo, and therefore he had no disqualifying convictions on his record when he applied for the card, according to authorities.

He also posed no "clear and present danger" under the word of the law.

When Bob's Pantry and Deli opened for business in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park in 2008, loyal customers lined up in the snow at 4 a.m. to support Bob Crimo, who was striking out on his own after years running a convenience store franchise. Photos from opening day showed customers hoisting massive sandwiches and Crimo posing with his beaming family -- including his eight-year-old son Robert Crimo III, who went by Bobby.

The deli quickly became a popular local fixture: a hangout spot for teenagers, a friendly gathering place for the neighborhood, and a pit stop for an affordable, delicious lunch.

But behind the scenes, the Crimo family was in turmoil. Police reports show that officers were regularly called to their home over domestic disputes between Crimo and his wife, and in 2019, police briefly confiscated a collection of knives after then 18-year-old Bobby threatened to "kill everyone."

More recently, after the once-bustling deli closed, the family appeared to fall into dire financial straits, with foreclosure cases proceeding against both of the homes they owned and Bob Crimo telling a judge several weeks ago he was on food stamps.

More than a dozen Highland Park residents who knew the shooter or his family spoke to CNN about his upbringing, as they tried to piece together how their city had joined the long list of American communities whose names have become shorthand for mass shootings.

By all accounts, Bobby Crimo was a quiet kid, who could be seen running around his dad's shop as he grew up. His father ran the White Hen Pantry, a franchise of a local convenience store chain that became known for its sandwiches.
In an affluent lakeside suburb where most shops closed early, the White Hen Pantry was open 24 hours, giving teenagers a safe hangout spot at night. Regulars remembered the elder Crimo as a gregarious, generous presence who would let customers waiting on a paycheck buy food on credit, and who seemed to be manning the counter at all hours of the day and night.

Locals described Crimo as "the mayor of Ravinia," the local neighborhood where the store was located, who knew all his customers and their regular orders.

Crimo could be eccentric: One time, a friend said, he competed with another local restaurant owner to see which business could go longer without replacing any lightbulbs -- until both stores were almost completely dark.
Crimo's shop closed after 7-Eleven bought out the White Hen Pantry chain. But Crimo reopened in a new location under his own name, and his loyal clientele followed.
Still, there were signs of trouble in the family. One longtime customer and friend of Crimo's — who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly about the family — remembered that he and his wife, Denise Pesina, would have heated arguments in the deli, even in front of customers.

"It was awkward for people," the friend said. "I remember thinking, if that's the public arguments, I can only imagine the private ones."

Police reports released this week show that the couple's fights continued behind closed doors. In the six years after the deli opened, officers were called to their home at least a dozen times to settle domestic disputes or respond to allegations that one or the other was intoxicated.

In one 2010 incident, Crimo alleged that Pesina "had hit him with a screwdriver on the left forearm" -- before recanting once he got to the police station -- and in another, he claimed she hit him on the head with a shoe.
"He threatens to call the police for any and every argument we get in," Pesina wrote in one handwritten witness statement. "He says he wants the police to think I'm crazy."

here is no record that any of those incidents led to criminal charges against either Crimo or Pesina.
The two separated at some point, according to friends, with Pesina staying in their Highland Park home and Crimo moving to his father's home in neighboring Highwood. Bobby lived in both homes over the years.

Pesina had had another brush with the law as well: In 2002, when Bobby was nearly two years old, she was arrested for child endangerment after allegedly leaving him in a locked car at a Toys-R-Us parking lot for about 27 minutes on a 79-degree day with the windows rolled up, according to court documents. Pesina pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment, and completed a year of court supervision.

Jeremy Cahnmann, who taught Bobby and his brother in an elementary after-school sports program, said the boys stuck out in his memory because their parents almost never picked them up on time.
"I remember talking to faculty at the school about how uninvolved the parents were," he said. Bobby was "always the kid there at the end who didn't get picked up."

At school, Bobby kept to himself, with former classmates of the future gunman describing him as an odd, soft-spoken kid who showed little interest in class, school activities or his peers. But he explored a different side of his personality with rap songs and music videos he posted online -- some of which included troubling imagery.

Molly Handelman, who attended middle school and high school with Bobby, described him as a "very quiet" guy. "When he did talk, he was very soft. He didn't seem aggressive ever, at all," she said.

Handelman, who worked with Bobby on class projects a few times, said "something definitely seemed off" about him. "He made it very clear he didn't care about school," she said.

Another former classmate who asked not to be named due to privacy concerns said he and Bobby used to hang out, play video games and skateboard together in middle school. "He would make YouTube videos all the time back then," the classmate said, "DIY videos on how to grip a skateboard or replace a wheel, stuff like that."

But in high school, the former classmate said, Bobby grew more insular and distant. "He was always by himself," he said. "No one seemed to try to be his friend."

According to a school district spokesperson, Bobby stopped attending Highland Park High School in 2016, after his freshman year. It's unclear whether he went to another school after dropping out.

As Bobby was struggling in school, his father's business was also having trouble staying afloat. Regular customers said that they noticed more of the shelves in the store going empty, and the hours it was open shrinking. In conversations with friends, Bob Crimo complained about a downturn in the business, increases in rent, and fees he said he had to pay the city.
In 2018, Crimo settled on a solution: running for mayor of Highland Park. People who knew him said they were puzzled about why he would embark on what seemed like a quixotic campaign against the popular incumbent, Nancy Rotering, who was Bobby's former Cub Scout leader.

In a local news profile, Crimo talked about making the city more business-friendly, but he didn't seem to actively campaign, and it's unclear how seriously he took the race. State records show Crimo didn't receive any campaign donations other than a $560 loan from himself, which he spent on yard signs. In the end, Rotering won 72% of the vote in the April 2019 election, soundly defeating Crimo.

In another blow, Crimo's deli shuttered around the same time. Google Street View photos show that while the shop had a big "Bob Crimo for Mayor" poster hanging in the window in late 2018, by September 2019, the storefront was vacant and empty.

According to court documents, the store was under a mountain of debt: A lender sued the deli and Crimo in late 2018, alleging he owed more than $764,000. A judge ruled in the lender's favor by default in March 2019 after Crimo failed to appear in court. It's unclear whether the debt was ever paid.

Crimo told the New York Post that he sponsored the application so his son could shoot at a gun range. This week, an attorney for Bob Crimo -- who no longer represents him -- told the Chicago Tribune that Crimo was not aware of the incident that resulted in the confiscation of the knives when he signed the card. Yet, according to the state police, Crimo was actually the one who reclaimed the knives from officers. In the Post interview, Crimo downplayed Bobby's threats in that incident as a "childish outburst."

Attorney George Gomez, who is representing both parents, told CNN that "the family denies that there was any issues of suicide at the time," and stressed law enforcement found "no safety risk."

Bobby went on to use the card to legally purchase multiple guns before he turned 21 last year, passing a total of four background checks, according to the state police. That included the semi-automatic rifle he used in the shooting.

Meanwhile, the family's finances appeared to unravel in recent years. HSBC Bank filed for foreclosure on their Highland Park house, where Bobby had grown up, in December 2019, alleging Crimo, Jr. owed more than $460,000. The case was delayed amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the lender restarted efforts to take possession of the home last year.
In April 2022, a mortgage servicing company filed to foreclose on a second property Crimo owns in the neighboring town of Highwood. The company, NewRez LLC, alleged that he had failed to make payments since July 2020, and owed more than $197,000.

In the Highland Park case, a judge granted Crimo a full waiver of court fees in May after he appeared in person and provided proof that he was receiving food stamps, according to court documents.

Last Thursday -- four days before the shooting -- Crimo filed a last-ditch motion to block foreclosure of the house, arguing the lender hadn't given him sufficient notice of being in default or of accelerating the due date for the balance of the mortgage.

Some of the Highland Park residents who were at the parade when Bobby opened fire said they blamed the father for allowing his son to buy guns.

The elder Crimo "should be held liable for it and responsible for it," declared Fred Kroll, a three-decade Highland Park resident who attended the parade with his wife and daughter and said he saw multiple people shot dead. "Whether it's civil lawsuits by the survivors or he goes to jail ... he should be punished."

State officials have poured cold water on the idea of Crimo facing criminal responsibility over the deaths. "There's not a criminal liability that's directly attached to vouching for someone else... and they end up doing something terrible like this," said Eric Rinehart, the Lake County State's Attorney.

Gomez said the family is "trying to cooperate with all local, state, and federal authorities at the moment." When asked if he felt there was any criminal wrongdoing on part of his clients, particularly the father, Gomez said, "we take the position that my client, Crimo Jr., did nothing wrong in this case."

Crimo reportedly has said he wants "a long sentence" for his son, who faces seven counts of first-degree murder and a sentence of life in prison, if convicted. Illinois abolished capital punishment in 2011.

Still, even Crimo's friends say they doubt he'll be able to stay in his hometown, or ever open a business here again.
"His kid shot up his hometown, and he's going to have to come to terms with that action and, honestly, the role he played in his son's evolution as a person," one friend said. "It was his son's name on the news -- and that's his name, too."

The Fourth of July parade shooter's location -- concealed on a rooftop along Highland Park's Central Avenue -- made it hard for law enforcement to figure out immediately where bullets were raining from when he opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle, the Illinois city's police chief said Thursday.

"The noise was bouncing off the buildings. People were pointing in different directions," Chief Lou Jogmen told CNN of the scene of fear and chaos that left seven people dead and dozens more wounded in yet another mass shooting in America.

In the panicked aftermath, authorities spent nearly eight hours hunting for the shooter, fearing he would resume his killing spree, Jogmen said as he offered fresh details of the carnage and what followed.

"Was it a pause, was it a break?" Jogmen said, referring to questions authorities faced during the frantic search. "Is this person intent on continuing until he ended his life? Is this a person that was looking for an escape?"

Robert E. Crimo III was taken into custody by police at a traffic stop the same day after being tipped off by what they described as "an alert member of the community."

The father of the suspected Highland Park, Illinois, mass shooter has been charged in connection with the shooting that claimed seven lives.

The suspect's father, Bobby Crimo Jr., took a "reckless and unjustified risk" when he signed the Firearm Owner's Identification (FOID) card for his son to apply for gun ownership, Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said at a news conference Friday. At the time, his son was 19 and could not get a FOID card on his own; 18-, 19- and 20-years-olds were required to have parent or guardian authorization, Rinehart said.

"Parents and guardians are in the best position to decide whether their teenagers should have a weapon. They are the first line of defense. In this case, the system failed," he said.

Crimo Jr. is facing seven counts of reckless conduct causing great bodily harm.

Crimo Jr.'s attorney George M. Gomez said in a statement Friday that the charges were "baseless and unprecedented."

"This decision should alarm every single parent in the United States of America who according to the Lake County State’s Attorney knows exactly what is going on with their 19 year old adult children and can be held criminally liable for actions taken nearly three years later," Gomez said in a statement.

Bobby Crimo Jr. told ABC News in July that he was "shocked" by the shooting.

"I had no -- not an inkling, warning -- that this was going to happen," he said.

"I filled out the consent form to allow my son to go through the process that the Illinois State Police have in place for an individual to obtain a FOID card," Crimo told ABC News this summer. "They do background checks. Whatever that entails, I'm not exactly sure. And either you're approved or denied, and he was approved."

"Signing a consent form to go through the process ... that's all it was," Crimo said of his involvement. "Had I purchased guns throughout the years and given them to him in my name, that's a different story. But he went through that whole process himself."

Crimo said his son purchased the weapons with his own money and registered them in his own name.

Crimo Jr. surrendered to police and is set to appear in bond court on Saturday.

The man accused of firing an assault rifle into crowds at a July Fourth parade in suburban Chicago last year, killing seven people, said Monday that he plans to represent himself at his trial, which is set to start in February.

Robert E. Crimo III, wearing a red shirt and red handcuffs, appeared in a Lake County courtroom, but did not explain why he wants to represent himself. He is facing 117 charges, including 21 counts of first-degree murder, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery, in connection with the shooting in Highland Park.

Judge Victoria Rossetti made it clear that Crimo, 23, would be responsible for filing all of his own motions and would not be getting any special treatment in jail for representing himself.

Rossetti extensively questioned Crimo, who said his highest education level is high school, to ensure that he understood the potential consequences of consecutive life sentences if he is convicted.

Crimo sat up straight and looked directly at the judge when she spoke to him, answering “no” when asked if he had ever taken any law classes, picked a jury, questioned potential jurors, questioned witnesses, researched or presented motions, or drafted opening and closing arguments.

His trial is set to begin Feb. 26. Rosetti said because of the number of witnesses and extensive amounts of evidence, it is expected to last four to six weeks, with jury selection taking seven to 10 days.