WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — The man accused of opening fire at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park is due back in court Wednesday, a week after prosecutors announced he faces 117 felony counts in the attack that killed seven people and wounded dozens more.
Robert E. Crimo III is scheduled to appear for an arraignment at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Lake County’s circuit court to enter a formal plea to the charges — 21 counts of first-degree murder, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery representing those killed and wounded during the parade on July 4 in Highland Park.
Lake County prosecutors in late July announced that a grand jury had indicted Crimo on the charges. They had previously filed seven murder charges against the 21-year-old in the days following the shooting.
FILE – This photo provided by the Lake County Major Crime Task Force shows Robert Crimo III. On Wednesday, July 27, 2022, Crimo III was indicted by a grand jury on 21 first-degree murder counts, 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery in connection with the Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, Ill. (Lake County Major Crime Task Force via AP, File)
The multiple first-degree murder charges allege Crimo intended to kill, caused death or great bodily harm and took action with a strong probability of causing death or great bodily harm on the seven people who died.
A representative for the county public defenders office, which is representing Crimo, has said the office does not comment publicly on any cases.
Prosecutors have said Crimo admitted to the shooting once police arrested him following a hourslong search for the gunman who opened fire from the rooftop of a building along the parade route.
Authorities have said the wounded range in age from 8 to their 80s, including an 8-year-old boy who was paralyzed from the waist down when the shooting severed his spine.