Illinois parade shooting survivors share their pain, grief and anger at sentencing hearing for Robert Crimo III

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Victims, survivors and relatives of those killed during the Highland Park July 4 parade shooting were among those who told their stories Wednesday in Lake County Court, either through the submission of victim-impact statements or by taking the witness stand, during the sentencing hearing for Robert Crimo III.

Crimo, who pleaded guilty last month to killing seven and injuring dozens of others during the 2022 mass shooting, chose not to attend the hearing and remained in the Lake County jail, where he has been since being arrested on the day of the tragedy.

The words of those who submitted statements or testified help paint a picture of the extent of the tragedy that shocked the community in and around Highland Park and Lake County, and allowed them to present their stories, “to the court and to history,” as State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said last month.

What follows are some of those stories, along with the testimony of others who were involved in the investigation.

‘They were horrified’

Highland Park Police Cmdr. Gerald Cameron Jr., now retired, recalls working the parade on the day of the shooting. He didn’t understand the sound he was hearing at first, but quickly realized it was gunfire.

Cameron, who drove shooting victims to the hospital himself several times because the ambulances were too busy, recalled encountering people attempting to perform CPR on a woman in a chair, who he would later learn was 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim.

He also recalled finding a group of people, including children, who had locked themselves in a bike shop basement.

“They were reluctant to come out. They were reluctant to come to the door,” Cameron said. “They were horrified.”

‘Mom and Dad are going to come find me soon’

Dina Ruder Ring, who grew up in Highland Park, was at the parade with her husband and three children. When the gunfire began, Ruder Ring said she assumed it was kids setting off fireworks.

She was struck in the foot by shrapnel, but her family managed to flee to a parking garage.

It was there she found a woman carrying a young child, with both covered in blood. The blood wasn’t theirs, the woman said, and the child wasn’t hers, as she handed him off to Ruder Ring.

The family ultimately took the child with them during the chaos that followed the shooting, hoping to find his parents.

Ruder Ring said she asked the boy what his name was, but he would only say, “Mom and Dad are going to come find me soon,” she recalled. She would later learn the child was the son of Kevin and Irene McCarthy, who were killed in the shooting.

‘It was going to be bad’

Highland Park resident and doctor Jeremy Smiley had rescheduled his hospital shift the day of the shooting so he could attend the parade with his extended family. It was a tradition, and roughly 10 people, including his wife and three children, set themselves up at their usual spot.

When he heard the gunfire, Smiley said he picked up his daughter and shouted for his family to run. His family made it away safely, and Smiley had his wife drop him off at the hospital, knowing from the “sheer chaos” and number of shots, “It was going to be bad.”

Smiley would help treat then 8-year-old Cooper Roberts, who had been shot in the abdomen but ultimately survived. The sight of the young child so badly injured will stay with him “forever,” he said.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Cooper,” Smiley said. “That initial feeling of seeing someone my kids’ age sick like that, that’ll never leave me.”

‘I knew it would probably be pretty horrible’

FBI Special Agent Mark Recca was on call the day of the shooting and looking forward to attending a different parade with his family. Instead, he ended up documenting the carnage after the shooting.

Recca, who has specialized training in evidence collection, said that after he was summoned to Highland Park, he drove from the north side of Chicago and ended up taking pictures of the extensive crime scene.

“I volunteered to be the photographer even though I knew it would probably be pretty horrible,” he said.

Recca said he photographed the five victims who died initially, and then ended up spending days at the scene, recovering evidence and trying to track the ricochets to find bullets.

He said he was one of the first law enforcement officers to arrive at the scene after the panicked crowd fled. The scene, Recca said, was almost “post-apocalyptic,” with strollers, shoes, purses and wallets, and other items abandoned along the parade route.

“There aren’t many times when you can go to the downtown of any city and see it absent of life or any people,” he said.

‘No remorse’

Brian Bodden was a Highland Park police detective at the time of the shooting, and a member of the Lake County Major Crimes task force. Bodden had known Crimo as a young boy, and talked with him intermittently through the years when residents would call in about the youth’s skateboarding or smoking pot.

He recalled during the defendant’s interrogation that Crimo never got excited or angry, and would sometimes laugh and joke.

“He was never serious. No remorse,” Bodden said.

Bodden said Crimo said he cared about people. When questioned how that could be after killing so many, he said, “Sometimes you’ve got to crack a couple eggs to make an omelet,” according to Bodden.

‘I hope the hate in you … eats you alive’

Leah Sundheim, the daughter of victim Jacquelyn Sundheim read two statements, one from herself and the other from her father, Bruce.

Crimo has “murdered my soulmate,” Bruce Sundheim’s statement read. “I miss her smile, her kindness, her humor and the warmth of her company,”

His tantrum has destroyed their dream, the statement said. When Crimo dies, Bruce Sundheim wrote, “No one will mourn you,” and “after today, I will not give you a second thought.”

“When I look at you, I don’t feel anger or a thirst for vengeance,” the statement continued. “I feel a deep sadness.”

Leah Sundheim said Crimo had taken her mother, leaving her life devastated and “out of balance.”

“She was the type of good that could counteract the evil of yours,” Leah Sundheim said. “I hope you wake in the middle of the night, gasping for air that you don’t deserve. I hope the hate in you that you tried to infect with us eats you alive.”

‘Despite the pain you caused me, I forgive you’

Angel Toledo, son of victim Nicolas Toledo, expressed his forgiveness to the man who killed his father three years ago, calling for Crimo to “come to Jesus.”

“The enemy of our souls, the devil, came to kill, steal peace and destroy lives,” Toledo said. “Despite the pain you caused me, I forgive you.”

Nicolas Toledo’s other son Alejo, recalled in a statement receiving a call that would “change our whole life” from his mother, learning his father had been killed.

“I lost my sense of hearing and felt like I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “I went into complete shock and started crying.”

His family was left “devastated,” Alejo Toledo said. He was left without his fishing partner, his mother without her husband, and their family without their loved one.

‘The images come to my mind at night’

Esmeralda Alvarez-Torres, who was struck by gunfire during the shooting, said in a statement that it had “greatly” impacted her life. She said she’s been left traumatized, struggling when in large crowds..

“The images come to my mind at night, thinking about all the people on the floor, and the people that died. The injury on my back still hurts. It’s painful to sleep. Painful to work,” Alvarez-Torres said.

‘It broke something inside me’

Alan Castillo, who said in his statement he nearly died after the shooting, said he’s been “forever” changed. His and several others’ lives had been saved by his girlfriend’s father, victim Nicolas Toledo, who had shielded them from gunfire, Castillo said.

“It hurled us into a world of trauma, fear … grief and reality we never asked for and never could have imagined,” Castillo said. “I was alive, but surrounded by death and devastation. I still haven’t made sense of the emotions that live inside me from that day.”

Castillo said talking about the shooting is like “ripping open wounds” he has never properly treated.

“It broke something inside me,” he said. “I’ve battled relentless trauma since then. I pushed my pain deep down, because I felt I had to.”

‘A terrorist, a deceiver and a pathetic waste of life’

The son and niece of victim Stephen Strauss recalled their relative as someone who remained active and still had a zest for life, even at 88 years of age.

John and Cynthia Strauss said his loss created a huge hole. John said his father’s death affected his elderly mother, who had to move into a senior center because her husband was no longer around.

Cynthia said her late uncle and her father were best friends.

“When we lost Stephen, half of my father went with him,” she said.

Crimo, she said, is “a terrorist, a deceiver and a pathetic waste of life.”

John Strauss said he can’t make peace with the way his father died. “It’s obscene,” he said.

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