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Seven died at the parade: The Highland Park shooting, four years later

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.

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Image: Stephen Hogan from Chicago, United States (CC BY)

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.

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Image: Stephen Hogan from Chicago, United States (CC BY)

It took more than eight hours after the shooting began for law enforcement to locate and arrest Crimo. In the interim, the parade route had become a federal crime scene, and Highland Park had become the center of a national conversation about gun violence, mass shootings, and the warning signs that go unheeded.

Crimo was initially charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. On July 27, 2022, prosecutors significantly expanded the indictment to 21 counts of first-degree murder, 48 counts of attempted murder, and 48 counts of aggravated battery.

The accountability sought by prosecutors extended beyond Crimo himself. His father, Robert Crimo Jr., was indicted by an Illinois grand jury on felony charges for allegedly sponsoring his son's application for a firearm license in December 2019, when Robert III was only 19 years old. Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart confirmed that the grand jury had found sufficient cause to proceed. Prosecutors alleged the younger Crimo had already made threats of violence at the time the license was granted.

Jury selection for Crimo's trial began on February 24, 2025. But on March 3, 2025, before the proceeding could reach its first witness, Crimo pleaded guilty to all charges — the 21 murder counts, all 48 attempted murder counts, and all 48 aggravated battery counts.

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Image: Meme Star27 (CC BY-SA)

The sentencing hearing that followed took place at the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan, Illinois, and lasted two days. Survivors and family members came to describe what they had lost. Liz Turnipseed, a survivor of the shooting, said the sentencing "closes a chapter" on that portion of her family's lives. Bruce Sundheim, whose family lost someone that day, had his daughter read a statement to the court: their lives had been "destroyed," he wrote, by what he called Crimo's "violent tantrum."

Crimo did not attend either day of the hearing. He offered no statement. His family also stayed away, with a lawyer for his father confirming the decision to the court.

The judge sentenced Robert Eugene Crimo III to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In announcing the sentence, the judge described Crimo as having left behind "oceans of grief." There would be no future parole hearing, no path out.

Today is four years since the shooting. The Independence Day parade route in Highland Park is where it happened, and that fact does not change. Seven people who came to celebrate a holiday did not come home. The parade and the massacre are now permanently bound together on this date.

Today in True Crime by CaseBond — 2026-07-04