The father of a young American, who killed seven people on National Day, has been charged with helping his son obtain the murder weapon.
Robert Crimo Jr was presented Thursday to a judge in the suburbs of Chicago, who notified him of his indictment for endangering the lives of others. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bail.
It is rare in the United States for parents to be implicated when their children commit killings.
“Reckless parents who help their children to obtain weapons of war are morally and criminally responsible for the suffering that ensues”, however estimated the local prosecutor Eric Rinehart in a press release, promising to continue to do everything to “make justice for the victims”.
Mr. Crimo Jr is accused of having helped his son Robert Crimo III to buy weapons, despite being aware of the young man’s mental disorders and threatening behavior.
In 2019, agents had indeed intervened at the family home after a report warning that the son “was going to kill everyone”. The police then seized sixteen knives, a dagger and a sword. The father had assured them that they belonged to him.
According to the American media, Robert Crimo III, then 19 years old, had applied three months later to obtain a license essential in the State of Illinois to buy, possess or carry a weapon.
His father had agreed to “sponsor” him, a compulsory formality for those under 21. Once the license in his pocket, the young man had bought five firearms.
On July 4, 2022, aged 21, he perched on a roof in Highland Park, in the north of the United States, with a semi-automatic rifle and opened fire on the crowd gathered for the traditional parade of the National Day. He had fired more than 70 bullets, killing seven and wounding thirty.
The carnage shook the country, which was already reeling from two bloodbaths in May in a supermarket frequented by African-Americans (10 dead) and an elementary school in Texas (21 dead).