Robert Crimo III was a ‘real quiet kid,’ uncle says

A “real quiet” kid who kept to himself. An aspiring YouTube rapper. A face etched with tattoos.

Robert Crimo III was a mystery to his own family, according to his uncle who was both deeply apologetic and stunned after the 22-year-old was taken into custody as a person of interest in the Highland Park parade shooting in Illinois.

As police dove into their investigation of the shooting attack that shattered the celebratory spirit at the Fourth of July parade, killing six people and injuring more than two dozen others, disturbing details began to emerge about Crimo.

“There were no warning signs,” Crimo’s uncle, Paul Crimo, told WFLD-TV, describing a typical interaction between the two. Paul Crimo lived with Robert Crimo’s father and Paul’s brother. “I saw him yesterday evening, and I went home, I said ‘hi’ to him, and when I came back downstairs, I said ‘bye,’ he said ‘bye,’ and that was it.”

“There were no signs of trouble. I saw no signs of trouble. If I did see signs, I would have said something,” he added.

The young man’s father, Bob Crimo, owns Bob’s Pantry & Deli, a popular spot in Highland Park, and had run for mayor in 2019.

Crimo’s profile adds that he is “the middle child of three and of Italian descent.”

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While Robert Crimo’s relatives noticed nothing amiss, the youth’s social media postings painted a dark picture.

Among them was an animation that showed a gunman being killed by police, and others with similarly violent imagery.

Crimo’s IMDB profile described him as Awake The Rapper, “an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor and director” from Chicago who is a “six-foot hip hop phenom” known for a hit song “On My Mind” from October 2018.

The FBI described his tattoos as “four tally marks with a line through them on his right cheek, red roses and green leaves on his neck, and cursive script above his left eyebrow.”

His bio stated he’d been uploading music since he was 11 and said he had “net worth” that was “estimated at $100 thousand.”

His uncle said Monday he was “heartbroken” to hear about the shooting.

“It’s like a dream, I can’t believe, I can’t imagine. I’m heartbroken. I’ll be heartbroken for the rest of my life. Breaks my heart,” he said.