WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — An Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago turned to chaos and panic when shots rang out, witnesses, survivors and relatives of people killed in the 2022 mass shooting testified Wednesday at the sentencing hearing for the gunman.
Robert E. Crimo III, 24, pleaded guilty last month to the shooting. He changed his plea moments before opening statements at his trial after years of unpredictable legal proceedings.
Prosecutors showcased some of the evidence they had prepared for trial, including testimony and videos.
Crimo is not attending the hearings or watching from jail, said Lake County sheriff’s spokesman Christopher Covelli. He has previously skipped court, including during parts of jury selection, despite warnings from Judge Victoria Rossetti that the case would move forward in his absence.
Prosecutors played video showing a band marching as shots rang out and the crowd fled. Musicians carrying instruments ran as emergency sirens blared.
“It went from watching a parade to utter chaos,” testified Dana Ruder Ring, who attended the parade with her husband, 8-year-old twins and 4-year-old daughter.
Retired Highland Park Police Commander Gerry Cameron, who was on duty the day of the parade, testified he ran toward what sounded like fireworks or a car backfiring and saw people hurt and others running in panic.
Authorities said Crimo fired from a roof. Witnesses described confusion and terror as families bolted, leaving chairs and strollers behind.
People’s belongings lie abandoned along the parade route after a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, U.S. July 5, 2022. Photo by Cheney Orr/REUTERS
Conway described clearing people, including children, hiding in businesses nearby.
“They were reluctant to come out. They were reluctant to come to the door,” he said. “They were horrified.”
Ruder Ring said she was hit by shrapnel as she ran away and “dove into a pile of other people.”
“We just had to keep going,” she testified. “We just knew that staying still was not a safe idea and we were terrified.”
Her husband, who left a parking garage to try to find the parents of a child who was covered in blood, described seeing “bodies still smoking on the ground,” Ruder Ring said.
She learned later that the boy’s parents, Kevin and Irina McCarthy, had been killed.
Many cried during the testimony in the packed hearing room.
Emergency room Dr. Jeremy Smiley escaped the parade while carrying his daughter, got his family to safety and went to the hospital.
“The number of shots, it was just clear that whatever this was, it was going to be bad,” he said in court.
Smiley described chaos, with every emergency room filled, injured people in the hallways and blood on the floor.
“It was a scene that I haven’t seen, probably ever, in my career,” he said.
Smiley treated 8-year-old Cooper Roberts, the youngest shooting victim, who was paralyzed from the waist down.
Crimo’s parents, who have attended most court proceedings, were not present Wednesday.
Crimo is certain to spend the rest of his life in prison. Each count of first-degree murder carries a maximum natural life sentence in Illinois.
Security was tight Wednesday with observers required to lock up their phones and pass through two sets of metal detectors.
Prosecutors began the sentencing hearing at the Lake County courthouse outside Chicago by laying out evidence against Crimo.
Dozens were wounded in the shooting. They ranged in age from their 80s to 8.
Prosecutors had reams of evidence, including Crimo’s videotaped confession.
Prosecutors initially charged Crimo with 21 counts of first-degree murder — three counts for each person killed — and 48 counts of attempted murder.
The case has moved slowly, in part because of Crimo’s erratic behavior.
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He was expected to accept a plea deal last year but changed his mind once he got to court, shocking even his own attorneys.
Crimo fired his public defenders and said he would represent himself. Then he reversed his decision. After he pleaded guilty in court, he signed documents waiving his right to trial with both his own name and the name “Donald Trump.”
The upscale Highland Park community of roughly 30,000 about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Chicago has mourned the shooting deeply. Some potential jurors were excused because of their connections to the case. Several survivors have also filed lawsuits against Crimo and gunmaker Smith & Wesson.
City leaders canceled the usual parade in 2023, opting for a “community walk.” The parade was reinstated last year on a different route and included a memorial.
The seven people killed in the shooting were Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; Eduardo Uvaldo, 69; and Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35.
Crimo’s father, Robert Crimo Jr., served less than two months in jail for charges in connection to how his son obtained a gun license.
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