Services begin for Highland Park parade shooting victims
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) — Mourners remembered a former synagogue preschool teacher who was among the seven people killed when a gunman opened fire on a July Fourth parade near Chicago, the first of three funerals scheduled for Friday.
Synagogue members at North Shore Congregation Israel in Highland Park remembered 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim as a dedicated member of their community who coordinated bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies and and taught preschool classes.
"We are horrified," said Rabbi Wendi Geffen. “We are enraged, sickened, aggrieved, inconsolable for the terror that has befallen us and robbed us of Jacki.”
Friends and family of two beloved grandfathers also planned to gather for services in memory of 88-year-old Stephen Straus and 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-zaragoza.
Robert E. Crimo III, the accused 21-yearold gunman, has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors expect to bring more charges representing the more than 30 people were wounded in the assault in the affluent Chicago suburb that is home to about 30,000 people near the Lake Michigan shore.
Services for 69-yearold Eduardo Uvaldo are scheduled for Saturday.
Funeral details for the remaining victims have not been made public. Authorities have identified them as 35-year-old Irina Mccarthy and 37-year-old Kevin Mccarthy, who were attending the parade with their 2-yearold son, and 64-year-old Katherine Goldstein, a mother of two.
Investigators have said the suspect, who lived in neighboring Highwood, legally purchased five weapons and planned the attack for weeks before he climbed to the roof of a business along the parade route and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.
Investigators reported that Crimo fled the parade by blending in with the fleeing crowd, then drove to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he contemplated a second attack. He returned to the Highland Park area, and his car was spotted by police.
Questions remain about whether Crimo should have been able to legally purchase firearms in Illinois. Illinois State Police officials have defended the approval of his gun license in December 2019, months after police received reports that he had made suicidal and violent threats.