The sentencing hearing for the Highland Park parade shooter has begun, with an emotional day of testimony expected at the Lake County Courthouse.
More than a dozen survivors and loved ones of those who were killed are expected to provide impact statements during the proceeding Wednesday, describing the grief and pain they’ve endured since a gunman opened fire on spectators at the town’s 2022 Independence Day Parade.
The mass shooting left seven people, four dozen injured and an entire community traumatized.
The shooter, Robert Crimo III, unexpectedly pleaded guilty last month to 21 counts of first-degree murder and 48 counts of attempted murder, minutes before opening statements were set to begin in his murder trial. His decision eliminated the need for a weekslong, high-profile court battle that would almost certainly have ended in a guilty verdict.
The 24-year-old, who fired an AR-15-style assault rifle from a rooftop into the parade’s crowd, is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Under state law, anyone found guilty of committing two or more murders receives an automatic life sentence in prison with no possibility of parole.
Crimo is not in the courtroom this morning. He previously had been warned the sentencing would proceed without him.
In sharing their acute personal grief and trauma, the survivors also will be speaking for an entire community that was irrevocably changed that morning. Amid the anguish, however, there already have been stories of bravery and extraordinary kindness.
Highland Park resident Dina Ruder Ring told the judge how she took cover in an underground garage with her husband and three children after the shooting began. As Ruder Ring and her husband were trying to collect their thoughts, a woman holding a small boy approached.
Both were covered in blood, Ruder Ring said.
The woman handed the two-year-old child to the couple.
“The blood is not ours,” Ruder Ring recalled the woman saying. “And he’s not mine.”
Imagining how terrified the boy’s parents would be, Ruder Ring’s husband went up to street level to find them. A police officer, however, ordered him to take cover because it was still an active shooting scene.
The couple then drove to her parents’ house, stopping first at the fire department to give the little boy to someone who could find his parents. The first responders there, however, asked them to keep the child until things calmed down.
Ruder Ring, who had been hit by shrapnel in the foot during the shooting, and her husband took care of the child for the next several hours. She repeatedly tried asking him his name, but he wouldn’t answer.
“His only response was ‘mama and dadda going to come find me soon,’” Ruder Ring testified, her voice choking with tears.
She later learned the boy’s name was Aiden McCarthy. His parents, Kevin and Irina, were among the 7 people fatally shot at the parade.
The hearing opened with Highland Park Police Cmdr. Gerald Cameron, who has since retired, detailing the chaotic moments after the shooting began. He described spectators trying to provide medical assistance to the wounded as others around them fled.
When he encountered people hit by bullets and shrapnel, he put them in his own squad car and drove them to the hospital because the paramedics on scene were overwhelmed. He made three separate trips that day.
Cameron then returned downtown to help spectators who had taken cover inside local businesses. In one bike shop, 15 people – including children – had locked themselves in the basement to shield themselves from the gunman, he said.
“They were reluctant to come out. They were reluctant to come to the door,” Cameron testified. “They were horrified.”
Testimony is expected to continue throughout the day.
The sentencing hearing for Highland Park Parade shooter Robert Crimo III begins with dozens of survivors expected to give victim impact statements
The sentencing hearing for the Highland Park parade shooter has begun, with an emotional day of testimony expected at the Lake County Courthouse.
More than a dozen survivors and loved ones of those who were killed are expected to provide impact statements during the proceeding Wednesday, describing the grief and pain they’ve endured since a gunman opened fire on spectators at the town’s 2022 Independence Day Parade.
The mass shooting left seven people, four dozen injured and an entire community traumatized.
The shooter, Robert Crimo III, unexpectedly pleaded guilty last month to 21 counts of first-degree murder and 48 counts of attempted murder, minutes before opening statements were set to begin in his murder trial. His decision eliminated the need for a weekslong, high-profile court battle that would almost certainly have ended in a guilty verdict.
The 24-year-old, who fired an AR-15-style assault rifle from a rooftop into the parade’s crowd, is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Under state law, anyone found guilty of committing two or more murders receives an automatic life sentence in prison with no possibility of parole.
Crimo is not in the courtroom this morning. He previously had been warned the sentencing would proceed without him.
In sharing their acute personal grief and trauma, the survivors also will be speaking for an entire community that was irrevocably changed that morning. Amid the anguish, however, there already have been stories of bravery and extraordinary kindness.
Highland Park resident Dina Ruder Ring told the judge how she took cover in an underground garage with her husband and three children after the shooting began. As Ruder Ring and her husband were trying to collect their thoughts, a woman holding a small boy approached.
Both were covered in blood, Ruder Ring said.
The woman handed the two-year-old child to the couple.
“The blood is not ours,” Ruder Ring recalled the woman saying. “And he’s not mine.”
Imagining how terrified the boy’s parents would be, Ruder Ring’s husband went up to street level to find them. A police officer, however, ordered him to take cover because it was still an active shooting scene.
The couple then drove to her parents’ house, stopping first at the fire department to give the little boy to someone who could find his parents. The first responders there, however, asked them to keep the child until things calmed down.
Ruder Ring, who had been hit by shrapnel in the foot during the shooting, and her husband took care of the child for the next several hours. She repeatedly tried asking him his name, but he wouldn’t answer.
“His only response was ‘mama and dadda going to come find me soon,’” Ruder Ring testified, her voice choking with tears.
She later learned the boy’s name was Aiden McCarthy. His parents, Kevin and Irina, were among the 7 people fatally shot at the parade.
The hearing opened with Highland Park Police Cmdr. Gerald Cameron, who has since retired, detailing the chaotic moments after the shooting began. He described spectators trying to provide medical assistance to the wounded as others around them fled.
When he encountered people hit by bullets and shrapnel, he put them in his own squad car and drove them to the hospital because the paramedics on scene were overwhelmed. He made three separate trips that day.
Cameron then returned downtown to help spectators who had taken cover inside local businesses. In one bike shop, 15 people – including children – had locked themselves in the basement to shield themselves from the gunman, he said.
“They were reluctant to come out. They were reluctant to come to the door,” Cameron testified. “They were horrified.”
Testimony is expected to continue throughout the day.
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