HIGHLAND PARK, Illinois – The 22-year-old Illinois man identified as a person of interest in Monday’s Parade Mass Murder is an amateur rapper who posted disturbing videos to his YouTube channel, including a crude animation of a heavily armed gunman being killed by police.
Authorities in this wealthy Chicago suburb announced Monday night that they are on the hunt for Robert “Bobby” Crimo III, who is believed to be armed and highly dangerous.
A photo they released matches the person who runs the YouTube channel and goes by the stage name Awake the Rapper, and a law enforcement official announced that they are the same person.
Most of Crimo’s social media pages, and embedded in several of his videos, feature a symbol that roughly resembles that of Suomen Sisu, a far-right Finnish organization. Crimo doesn’t seem to mention the national group in his posts, though.
An Instagram account of Crimo — whose family is from the Highland Park area — features several black-and-white portraits revealing him with a tattoo of the number on one side of his temple and the word “Awake” above one of them. his eyebrows. Crimo also appears to have hatchings that add up to five under his eye.
” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/GtEMvJBitqRhFKeqX7XdPw–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ–/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/api/res/1.2/ -~B/aD0wO3c9MDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/thedailybeast.com/0dcf38ec3637baab0a19228d5a44a548″ class=”caas-img”/>
A neighbor who wished to remain anonymous told The Daily Beast that Crimo riding an electric bicycle through the neighborhood and nearby nature reserves would destroy heavy metal. He was driving a car with “pussymobile” written on it.
“The family has lived in the area for a long time,” she said, adding that his father is a small business owner who ran for mayor of Highland Park in 2019 and lost by a two-to-one margin to the incumbent†
“We don’t really know him, but we see him driving around the neighborhood,” she said. “We never had any interaction with him, other than just seeing him driving around.”
However, his videos are full of dark themes.
In one, entitled “On my Mind”, Crimo is seen in an empty classroom in tactical gear and carrying the American flag. In another, he raps, “Like a sleepwalker, I’ll break through anyway,” alongside fragments of footage in which he appears to be armed.
Doctor who helped parade Vics: ‘horrific, devastating injuries’
The video titled “Toy Solider” is a cartoon that begins with a student texting in class, while Crimo can be heard rapping “fuck this world”. It cuts between images of a heavily armed gunman entering a school and opening fire, then coming into contact with the police outside. The final scene shows the shooter lying in a pool of blood.
Crimo also turned out to have a blog, where he posted several of his music videos and photos of himself. In a video titled “Smiley Face Solider,” Crimo records himself painting an armed soldier with a yellow cartoon smiley face on a brick wall while the Star Wars theme song plays in the background.
A listing for Crimo on the entertainment site IMDBdescribes him as a “six-foot hip-hop phenomenon” who is the “middle child of three and of Italian descent.”
Do you have a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
Get Daily Beast’s biggest scoops and scandals straight to your inbox. Sign up now.
Stay informed and get unlimited access to Daily Beast’s unparalleled reporting. Subscribe now.