The accused Highland Park Fourth of July gunman painted a chilling mural of a smiley-face figure brandishing a rifle on the wall of his mom’s home, The Post learned Wednesday.
The revelation of the creepy image emerged as Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III’s mom, Denise, was spotted looking downcast outside her Highland Park home Wednesday afternoon — just days after her son’s alleged Independence Day slaughter.
The eerie mural, painted on the outside back wall of the house, shows the character with a yellow happy face for a head clutching what appears to be a high-powered rifle.
It wasn’t immediately clear when Crimo painted the mural.
His father, Bob Crimo Jr., told The Post on Wednesday that the 21-year-old was just “expressing his art” with the image and that it “didn’t really mean anything.”
Meanwhile, Denise, who is said to be struggling in the wake of her son’s alleged massacre, kept her head down as she emerged from the home Wednesday.
Denise’s estranged husband said she was feeling “horrible” after their son allegedly opened fire on the innocent parade-goers, killing seven and injuring more than 40 others.
Authorities said Crimo’s horrific crime was premeditated and that he’d been planning it for weeks, but his dad said his son had made no mention of his sick plans.
The father said Crimo had told his mom just a few days before the massacre that he didn’t have any plans to mark the Fourth of July holiday.
“Apparently he’d been planning this for a couple of weeks, but he told his mom he had no plans,” Bob told The Post.
More coverage on the Highland Park parade shooting
- Toddler who lost both parents in shooting was found under his dad’s body
- ‘I’m deeply, deeply sorry’: Uncle of shooter apologizes
- What we know about Robert Crimo’s social media
After Crimo allegedly opened fire on the Independence Day parade route, the gunman ran to his mom’s house and “borrowed” her car so he could flee, according to authorities.
He also didn’t mention anything to his mother then about what he’d just done, cops said.
Meanwhile, it also emerged Wednesday that a different home, where the suspect lived with his father and uncle in nearby Highwood, had been facing foreclosure, property records showed.
Legal papers were served in relation to that property last month, court records show.
The Crimos owed nearly $200,000 on the 30-year mortgage, according to initial pre-foreclosure records online.
That is almost half the stucco property’s current value of around $425,000. The formal foreclosure complaint was filed in April, records show.
The property had been in Crimo’s family for 27 years — before the suspect was born — after being bought in 1995 by his grandfather, Robert Crimo Sr., using a $50,000 loan, records show.
It remained in the family after the granddad died in 2018, with the deranged alleged gunman still living there, his uncle confirmed in interviews.
The uncle, Paul Crimo, told Fox 32 that he last saw his nephew Sunday evening — hours before the bloodbath — and “saw no signs of trouble.
“When I went home, I said, ‘Hi’ to him, and then when I came back downstairs, I said, ‘Bye,’ he said, ‘Bye,’ and that was it,” Crimo told the station. “I’ve seen nothing that would trigger him doing this.”
