Aiden reportedly survived because his father shielded him with his body • shooter’s father is a well-known local figure who owns a deli and once unsuccessfully ran for mayor
A deadly massacre at a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb has left a Jewish toddler an orphan. The parents of a two-year-old found wandering alone after Monday’s attack were among the victims of the latest US mass shooting.
At least two Jewish community members, including the boy’s mother, were among the seven fatalities in the mass shooting that took place in Highland Park, Illinois.
Irina McCarthy (Levberg), 35, and Kevin McCarthy, 37, were killed when a rooftop shooter fired on the July Fourth parade on Monday. About 50 people also suffered gunshot wounds and related injuries, police and hospital officials said.
The toddler, Aiden, survived because his father shielded him with his body, local media reported. He was eventually separated from his parents in the ensuing chaos and was later returned to grandparents by police, according to a fundraising page.
“He will have a long road ahead to heal,” said Irina Colon, who organized the GoFundMe page with the family’s permission, adding that Aiden’s grandparents Misha and Nina Levberg will raise the boy.
The Levbergs are immigrants from Russia who raised Irina, their only child, in the Chicago area, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
Misha told the Times that Irina met her husband Kevin – who worked for a gene therapy startup – through her job in pharmaceuticals. He said that he picked Aiden up at the police station after a neighbor showed him a photo of a lost boy.
The fund has raised over $827,000 by Tuesday night.
Along with Irina, the other Jewish victim identified in Monday’s attack was Jacki Sundheim, 63, the events and b’nei mitzvah coordinator at a nearby Reform synagogue, North Shore Congregation Israel. She had attended the synagogue and worked there for decades.
“There are no words sufficient to express the depth of our grief for Jacki’s death and sympathy for her family and loved ones,” the synagogue’s statement said.
She is survived by her husband Bruce and daughter Leah, according to the synagogue.
Another victim was Nicolas Toledo, 78, visiting from Mexico when he was shot at the parade alongside relatives, some of whom were wounded but are expected to survive, according to local media.
“Indications” of more Jewish victims
Other victims identified by authorities were Katherine Goldstein, 64, and Stephen Straus, 88. Details about them were not immediately available. Consul General in Chicago Yinam Cohen told Israeli media his office has “indications” that Goldstein and Straus may also have been Jewish.
The seventh victim has not yet been named.
Thirty nine people were taken to hospitals run by the NorthShore University HealthSystem, ranging in age from 14 to in their 70s, said spokesman Jim Anthony. Nine remained hospitalized.
The shooting happened four blocks away from a Chabad center, Chabad News reported Monday night. In a video of the incident, it appears that a klezmer band was playing when the shooter attacked. According to Chabad, the Jewish community is often quite involved with the parade, and it usually has a menorah float.
“The original Chicago Jewish suburb”
The entire North Shore region – which stretches over 20 miles along Lake Michigan, approximately from Evanston up to Lake Bluff – is heavily Jewish, and other adjacent suburbs northwest of Chicago, such as Buffalo Grove and Skokie, are also known for their large Jewish populations. But Highland Park has the highest Jewish ratio of them all, being the original Chicago suburb that grew a substantial Jewish population in the early 20th century.
Highland Park has a population of 30,176, about a third of whom are Jewish. The North Shore of Chicago’s large Jewish community has also made it a common destination for Israelis.
Israelis feel “safer in Gaza”
Deborah, an Israeli-American resident of a Gaza periphery community, was with her family at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade when a shooter opened fire.
“We were a few feet away from his targets,” she told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.
“I’m familiar with gunshots,” said Deborah, who at first told herself the bangs she heard were typical July 4 sounds of fireworks and firecrackers.
“They just can’t get away from terror,” Deborah said. “We live on the Gaza border, and we came here for a peaceful vacation.”
Residents of the Gaza periphery often face the danger of rocket and mortar strikes, among other terrorist threats. Deborah said at least where she lives, it’s known where the danger is coming from, the IDF is present, and there are warnings before the explosive projectiles fall.
“I knew this happened in America, but you don’t think it’s going to happen in Highland Park,” she said.
Deborah had wondered about the shooter’s motives: “Is he antisemitic; is he anti-American?”
She described the Highland Park neighborhood as “pretty Jewish… [When] something happens like this in an upper- to middle-class, half-Jewish area, you have to wonder.”
The shooter, Robert E. Crimo III, was arrested later that evening. To her shock, he is the son of a man whom Deborah has known her entire life. Crimo’s father, Bob Crimo II, is a well-known local figure who owns multiple businesses, including a deli, and once unsuccessfully ran for mayor.
Local police are still investigating the gunman’s motive.
“I feel safer in Zikim on the Gaza border,” she said. “No one is safe in America now.”
Suspect charged, reportedly briefly visited synagogue
The suspect was charged on Tuesday with seven counts of first-degree murder.
If convicted, Crimo, 21, would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, Illinois states attorney Eric Reinhart said in announcing the charges at a news conference.
According to Chabad, the man identified as the gunman briefly visited Chabad of Highland Park earlier this year.
“The community is shell-shocked,” said Michla Schanowitz, co-director with her husband Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz of Chabad of Highland Park. When images of the now-apprehended suspect began circulating, the rabbi realized he’d seen the suspect before.
“In the spring of 2022, an individual who matches the description of the shooter briefly visited the synagogue,” Schanowitz said in a statement. “He entered wearing a yarmulke yet seemed out of place. Upon arriving, he was greeted by our security team, which includes off-duty police officers, and licensed and trained congregants, who observed him throughout. A short while later he departed without incident. We are, of course, working with law enforcement to help advance their investigation.”
US mass shootings in 2022
There have been over 350 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group.
On June 23, the Senate passed a gun control bill for the first time in decades.