The 21-year-old suspect in the Highland Park Fourth of July parade mass shooting is believed to have been turned away from a synagogue in the North Shore community in April, according to the head of a Jewish security organization.
A man who looks like Robert E. Crimo III entered the entered the Chabad synagogue during Passover, said Michael Masters, chief executive officer of Secure Community Network, which is headquartered in Chicago.
Masters said Crimo wasn’t on his organization’s radar until Monday, after police, identifying him as the suspect in the massacre that killed six people and left dozens wounded, released a photo of Crimo showing the tattoos he has on his face and neck.
“The rabbi recognized him from pictures as the same individual who visited the synagogue in April,” Masters said. “Security encountered him. There was a conversation with the individual and he ultimately left.”
The rabbi couldn’t be immediately reached.
Masters’ group works with the FBI and the federal Department of Homeland Security to protect Jewish facilities across the country. It provided training at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, near Fort Worth that the rabbi and three congregants said they relied on when a gunman took them hostage early this year.
Highland Park has a large Jewish population, but Masters said his organization hasn’t found any information to make him think the motivation for the shootings was antisemitism.
“Nothing overtly we have identified in his social media posts says this was an antisemitic attack, but we are coordinating with law enforcement,” Masters said. “Apparently on social media, there are some indications he was ideating around the Fourth of July for some period of time, which would indicate this was not an attack on one particular community.”
Authorities said Tuesday they didn’t have any information the attack targeted anyone by race or religion.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2022. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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