Highland Park parade shooter sentenced to life in prison without parole

The convicted shooter in the 2022 Highland Park Fourth of July Parade, Robert Crimo III, was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Thursday. 

Judge Victoria Rossetti listened to testimony and victim statements over the past two days. Rossetti gave the shooter seven consecutive life sentences, one for each of the seven people he killed, plus an additional 50 years for the 48 people wounded in the attack.

Crimo was not in court as the sentence was announced, but an unrelated issue inside the jail regarding the shooter caused a brief recess during the judge’s sentencing. After a recess of about 45 minutes, the shooter decided not to come into court after all, and the sentencing continued.

Those who were killed in the shooting included 64-year-old Katherine Goldstein, 35-year-old Irina McCarthy, 37-year-old Kevin McCarthy, 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim, 88-year-old Stephen Straus, 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, and 69-year-old Eduardo Uvaldo.  

Another 48 people were wounded in the shooting, including Cooper Roberts, then 8, who was left paralyzed from the waist down.  

“Today is about the victims and the survivors in the community in Highland Park and beyond. Our office will continue to support them. Their bravery is truly stunning,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said after the sentencing hearing. “The amount of trauma and pain that they have gone through in this case is something that is hard to describe. In the courtroom, I used the words ‘oceans of pain, trauma, grief and loss,’ and I don’t even think that word is really adequate to describe the impact that this case has had.”

Rinehart thanked police officers for their fast response to the shooting to catch the gunman, and said the overwhelming evidence detectives gathered ensured Crimo “didn’t have one chance of winning a trial.” He also praised the Highland Park community for the resilience it has shown since the deadly attack.

“Seven people lost their lives, but this community kept going, and there always has been strength in this community and from this group of victims and survivors, no matter how that strength is shown, and that stands in such contrast to what the offender did,” he said.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said the city continues to stand with the shooting’s victims and survivors.

“Our support remains steadfast, and we will never forget. This sentencing does not mark the end of our efforts, it strengthens our resolve to push for meaningful change,” she said.

The shooting prompted Illinois lawmakers to pass a statewide assault weapons ban in 2023.

Thus far, the ban has survived challenges in the Illinois Supreme Court and federal courts. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge to the ban while proceedings continue before a federal appeals court in Chicago.

Rotering urged Congress to follow suit with a national ban on assault weapons.

“Our peer nations can’t understand how we put up with this, and I recognize that we as a community, we’re coming together to celebrate freedom, but how free are you if you’re constantly worried that somebody’s going to come unleash 83 bullets on your community in under a minute? That’s not freedom,” she said.

Shooting victims speak out at lengthy and emotional sentencing hearing

On Wednesday and Thursday, survivors of the mass shooting, joined by their families, sat in the courtroom as witnesses answered questions and recounted the day of the deadly attack. 

Retired Highland Park Police Commander Gerry Cameron described how he personally took three people to the hospital before leading the investigation into the shooting.

Highland Park resident Dana Ruder Ring shared the story of how she and her family ran for cover in a parking garage after the gunman opened fire. As she and her husband and children were in the parking garage, a woman came up to them holding a 2-year-old boy covered in blood, and handed him to the couple.

As she tried to figure out who the boy was, and where his parents were, he repeatedly insisted his parents would come find him. Later, she learned the boy was Aiden McCarthy, and both of his parents – Irina and Kevin McCarthy – had been killed.

The shooter pleaded guilty last month to 21 counts of first-degree murder and 48 counts of attempted first-degree murder just moments before opening statements were set to begin in his trial.

In addition to skipping his sentencing, Crimo also repeatedly failed to attend court proceedings in his case before ultimately pleading guilty. During the three days of jury selection, he was only in court for the first half of each of the first two days, and was not in court at all on the final day of jury selection.

Rinehart said it will be up to the Illinois Department of Corrections to determine where Crimo will be imprisoned.

Elyssa Kaufman

Elyssa is a digital news producer for CBS Chicago. She covers breaking news and manages the station’s social media presence.