Four years ago today, the familiar ritual of an Independence Day parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, was shattered by gunfire. On July 4, 2022, Robert Eugene Crimo III, then 21 years old, climbed to the rooftop of the Ross Cosmetics building at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and 2nd Street in downtown Highland Park and opened fire on the crowd watching the parade below.
The shooting began at 10:14 a.m. Central Daylight Time, approximately fifteen minutes into the parade. Highland Park, a suburb about thirty miles north of Chicago, had held this parade for decades. Families lined the route with lawn chairs. Children watched floats pass by. Then the gunfire started.
Seven people were killed. Forty-eight more were wounded. Emergency responders arrived to find abandoned chairs, strollers, and belongings scattered along the route. Witnesses described fleeing in all directions — some hiding inside nearby businesses, others racing through the chaos to find family members they had lost in the panic.