Highland Park marks one-year anniversary of July 4 mass shooting

At 10:14 a.m. on July 4, 2022, an Independence Day parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park turned deadly in a way community members could not have imagined.

Seven people were killed after a gunman opened fire from a rooftop above the parade route. A day later, Robert “Bobby” Crimo III was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and other crimes.

A year after the tragedy, emotions still run high as Highland Park continues to heal while remembering the victims and showing the resolve to move forward.

Read the stories below for the latest as Highland Park marks the one-year anniversary of the shooting.

Shane Selig often volunteered to provide security for the Highland Park Independence Day parade, a typically low-stress job where the biggest threat to public safety occurred when people carelessly walked in front of floats or children darted into the street to grab poorly tossed candy.

These are the so-called dangers that weighed mostly heavily on his mind as he pedaled down Central Avenue on July 4, 2022. The parade had begun about 15 minutes earlier, bringing the usual mix of marching bands, local veterans and politicians that made it one of the most well-attended Fourth of July events along the North Shore.

That’s when Selig heard the pop.

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In the immediate aftermath of last year’s mass shooting at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade came the expected questions when such a tragedy unfolds: Who was the gunman? Where had his weapon come from?

And in Illinois, a state run by gun control-minded Democrats, could laws be bolstered and were police using them as effectively as possible?

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One year after a horrific mass shooting shattered the notion of public safety in Highland Park, community leaders and citizens of all ages are still reckoning with what it takes to make safe space.

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After nearly a year, the guardianship battle has escalated over a boy whose parents were killed in the mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park.

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The parents of a toddler. A father of eight and a grandfather to many. A synagogue employee known for her kindness. A family man who loved the arts.

A mass shooting during the Highland Park Independence Day parade has now claimed the lives of at least seven people and left some two dozen others injured, ranging in age from 8 to 85 years old.

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On an idyllic summer morning, from a rooftop high above the Highland Park Independence Day parade, a gunman aimed down at the floats and lawn chairs and strollers and opened fire. The high school marching band’s members sprinted for their lives, still carrying their flutes and saxophones. Bystanders scooped up young children and fled. In all, seven people were killed.

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See photos from Tribune photographers of the Highland Park mass shooting and the aftermath.

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