HIGHLAND PARK, Illinois – Days after a gunman opened fire at a July 4th parade here, Alberto Fuentes arrived at a downtown memorial for the victims and was asked a question that now haunts many in this shattered suburb of Chicago: could the parents of the old suspect have prevented any of this?
“The boy had a problem,” Mr. Fuentes, 40, said. “I also have children, and if I see something, I have a responsibility. Parents had a responsibility to do something. “
Millions of American parents are now worried that their children will be the victims of a mass shooting. But there is a different nightmare for the small but growing group of parents whose children, almost always children, are pulling the trigger.
Some had spent months or years before the attacks worrying about their children’s mental health and seeking help in vain. But most do not alert authorities before an attack, investigators say, and these parents can face contempt and accusations that ignored warning signs or even attacks allowing their children to get deadly weapons.
Then some parents change their name and leave town. A handful tell their stories to prevent future attacks. Others try to disappear through their silence.
“It’s scary enough to think you might be the victim of some random violence,” said Andrew Solomon, an author who interviewed the parents of gunmen who attacked Columbine High School and Sandy Hook Elementary. “But to think they might be called in for not knowing your child had caused this is also a terrible fate.”
The parents of the accused man in the Highland Park shooting have been subjected to a scrutiny following the attack that killed seven people and left many more injured. Law enforcement released records detailing that the father sponsored his son to obtain a firearms license in 2019 despite incidents in which his son was said to have attempted suicide with a machete. and lured police into his home because, officers said, he threatened to “kill.” everyone. ” The father has said he did nothing wrong and was surprised by what had happened.
As more of the deadliest mass shootings in the country are carried out by murderers in their teens and early 20s, prosecutors and investigators are focusing on parents to find out how radicalized their children are, what interventions they might have had. stopped and whether parents who ignore obvious warnings or provide weapons to their children should be criminally liable. According to Violence Project data, more than 50 people under the age of 25 have murdered at least four people in a public setting since 1966. These data exclude mass killings attributed to gang activities, robberies or other underlying crimes.
Sometimes parents are charged with negligence or manslaughter after a child accidentally shoots himself or someone else with an improperly stored gun. It is much rarer for parents to be charged after their children are shot.
Learn more about Highland Park Shooting
Seven people were killed and many more were injured in a mass shooting at the July 4 parade in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago.
But a handful of recent cases suggest that this may be changing, as law enforcement is looking for new ways to combat the rise in mass shootings.
“It’s an unknown territory of responsibility that parents will have for their children’s behavior,” said Frank Kaminski, the police chief in Park Ridge, Illinois, another Chicago suburb. He added: “I’m all for making everyone responsible for guns.”
When a 15-year-old in Michigan was charged with killing four classmates last year, his parents were charged with manslaughter; they have pleaded not guilty. And after a 29-year-old man began killing a Waffle House in Nashville in 2018, the man’s father, an Illinois resident, was charged in that state with illegally providing the weapon used in the restaurant.
Officials said the Waffle House gunman had been treated for mental health issues and later lost his gun license in Illinois. When this happened, they said, he transferred possession of the weapons to his father. When the son walked away, authorities said, the father returned a rifle to him, which they said was a crime.
But Michael Doubet, a lawyer for Jeffrey Reinking, the father of the Waffle House gunman, said a distinction must be made between the responsibilities of the parents of a juvenile delinquent and the parents of someone who commits a mass shooting as a legal adult. . . Mr Reinking was convicted of illegal delivery of a firearm and is awaiting sentencing.
“When people are over 18, they’re out of their parents’ control, ”Doubet said.
Kevin Johnson, a prosecutor in the case, said family and friends must “have the courage and common sense to follow through and make the right report to the authorities” if they fear that someone they know is heading for violence. .
He added: “Unless and until they are willing to do so, there is no way the authorities can intervene and help and perhaps prevent a tragedy.”
Researchers say some parents of children with problems do not always know where to ask for help. They hesitate to call the police about their children’s private mental health struggles, before they become violent, for fear of the lasting effect on their child’s record.
Investigators found a deep denial in a case like the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012. A detailed state report found that the 20-year-old gunman’s mother did not respond to calls from medical experts to receive health treatment. mental for him in the years before the shooting and did not restrict his access to weapons as his mental health deteriorated. The mother, Nancy Lanza, was one of 27 people her son killed.
The issue of parental responsibility is especially complicated for gunmen occupying a blurred space between childhood and adulthood. They are often still tied up at home, but are legally adults, and can often pass background checks and buy powerful firearms.
In online messages that appear to have been written by the 18-year-old accused of killing 10 people in a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket in May, the writer worried that his mother would find the weapons he had stored in the room in his room. parents house. That same month, the 18-year-old gunman from Uvalde, Texas, had been living with his grandparents and shot his grandmother in the face before driving to elementary school where he killed 19 children and two adults.
The suspect in the Highland Park massacre, Robert E. Crimo III, had lived with his father, Robert Crimo Jr., for the past six months, and with his mother, Denise Pesina, before that, he said a family lawyer. After the attack, police said, he fled the city in his mother’s car before being arrested. He was charged with homicide and ordered jail without bail.
None of the parents of the accused gunman has been charged with any crime. Authorities have given uncompromising answers to questions about whether they are investigating former Mr. Crime, saying “everything is on the table.” A public defender representing the son declined to comment on the case against his client or whether the parents had any guilt. George Gomez, a lawyer representing Mr. Crime and Mrs. Pesina said they refused to be interviewed for this article.
In recent media interviews, the elder, Mr. Crimo, said he had no involvement in the shooting and had no idea what his son might have planned.
He defended his decision to sponsor his son’s application to obtain a gun owner’s license in 2019, saying he was following the legal process Illinois had created for anyone under the age of 21 to acquire an ID card. gun owner. Given the father’s sponsorship, the State Police said he had no legal basis to deny the son’s application.
“I filled out the consent form to allow my child to go through the process: they do background checks, whatever that means,” Mr. Crime in an interview with ABC News.
State Police said the document signed by former Crimo included a provision stating that “he shall be liable for any damage arising from the use of firearms or ammunition by the minor sun · Bidder “.
The younger Mr. Crimo bought the high-powered rifle that police said he used in the parade attack before his 21st birthday, when he could have applied for a license without sponsorship. He was 21 at the time of the shooting, which police said he carried out after he climbed onto a rooftop in downtown Highland Park during the parade and sprayed more than 80 bullets into the crowd.
Prior to the attack, the father was well known in the community, operated delicatessens in the city and unsuccessfully presented himself to the mayor. His wife, Mrs. Pesina, had a natural healing business.
The domestic life of the Crimo family could be chaotic. In August 2002, just before the suspect’s second birthday, police officers found the boy alone in a car in the parking lot of Toys “R” Us. The prosecution charged his mother, Mrs Pesina, who he said left him alone for about 27 minutes with the windows rolled up while it was 79 degrees outside. The court records show that Ms. Pesina reached an agreement and spent a year in judicial oversight, which she completed. Records show that no trial has been handed down in the case of juvenile delinquency.
The suspect’s parents sometimes argued aloud and officers made several visits to the house during a turbulent period a decade ago to intercede in minor disputes, according to police records.
Along the way, there were indications that his son was struggling. He dropped out of Highland Park High School in 2016, shortly before beginning his sophomore year, officials said, and never graduated from that school.
“It was like he was invisible,” said Kate Kramer, 21, who met him in high school.
About 80 percent of gunmen in mass shootings show a marked change …