I am always amazed at how no one ever sees it coming. This father seems to have played a fairly active role in helping his son acquire firearms and knew there were some alarming incidents in the not-so-distant past, however, he is just as surprised as anyone else.
Perhaps it is love.
"I had no – not an inkling, warning – that this was going to happen," Robert Crimo Jr. told ABC News. "I am just shocked."
Crimo said he never saw his son, Robert "Bobby" Crimo III, as a danger to anyone. He was dismissive of a September 2019 incident when his son threatened "to kill everyone," leading police to briefly confiscate 16 knives, a dagger and a sword.
"I think (that was) taken out of context," Crimo said. "It's like just a child's outburst, whatever he was upset about, and I think his sister called the police. I wasn't living there."
Three months later he filled out the consent form to allow his son to go apply for a gun owner's permit from the Illinois State Police. He said he does not regret it, adding that his son purchased the weapons with his own money and registered them in his own name.
