Suspected gunman Robert “Bobby” Cremo III posted online music videos he apparently made with ominous-sounding songs and animated scenes of gun violence.
In a video titled “Are You Awake”, Cremo is seen with multicolored hair and a face tattoo, saying, “I just need to do it. It’s my destiny.”
The video shows a cartoon animation of a stick-figure man – who looks like Cremo – in tactical gear attacking him with a rifle.
In another video, titled “Toy Soldier”, a similar stick-figure cartoon character resembling Cremo is shown lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood, surrounded by guns drawn by police officers.
Cremo, who calls himself “Awake the Rapper”, posted his music to several major streaming outlets and a personal website. The Facebook and Twitter accounts believed to be related to Cremo were named after him as an individual of interest in the mass shooting that killed at least six people. His Facebook profile photo shows him wearing a helmet with a camera mount, a face cover and a multicolored jacket.
On 24 September, he posted a video on Twitter, which shows him sitting on a set that resembles a classroom, wearing a helmet and posing in various scenes, while in the background “When An instrumental arrangement of “Johnny Comes Marching Home” is underway.
He had not posted on Twitter since October 26, 2021, when he wrote, “I am not a robot.”
In another music video for the song “On My Mind”, Cremo performs in a classroom set filled with desks, lockers and chalkboards. In the last minute of the video, viewers see a shot of Cremo reaching into his backpack before the music suddenly cuts out. Then, Cremo, wearing a helmet and a tactical vest, is seen dropping bullets on the classroom floor, playing to the music of “Call of Duty”, a popular shooting video game, over the scene.
The videos seem to have been posted online last year.