Highland Park marches in first July Fourth parade since mass shooting

Highland Park residents on Thursday took a major step in the town’s collective grief: They gathered wagons, ribbons and flags for a July Fourth parade.

Two years after a gunman killed seven people and injured dozens more at Highland Park’s Independence Day parade, the North Shore suburb is continuing to reckon with how to both honor the victims and celebrate the holiday.

“July Fourth is always going to be a day of mixed emotion,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering told reporters early Thursday. “Having that opportunity to come together as a community to celebrate this great nation, we’re looking forward to that. But first, we need to remember what this community has been through and remember those lives that we lost.”

Highland Park planned a series of events Thursday that encompassed both memorial and celebration, including a parade along a new route and a festival in a local park.

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At the morning remembrance ceremony, attendees wore mostly casual, red, white and blue wear in step with a traditional holiday celebration, as law enforcement, police dogs and therapy dogs roamed the campus alongside them.

Family of victims, survivors and other community members gathered for words from Rabbi Michael Schwab of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El and Deacon Louie Vignocchi of Christ Our Hope Parish, along with string music, poetry and other presenters.

“If we allow it, this one evil act can change how we live,” Vignocchi said. “We can’t allow that to happen. No one person or event should dictate how we live our lives, who we trust, who we respect, who we love and honor.”

The 45-minute ceremony had Spanish translations and was not live-streamed for security and privacy reasons, according to the city. Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was among the several hundred people in attendance.

Linda Straus, widow of Stephen Straus, who at 88 was the oldest victim in the massacre, said she felt after the ceremony Thursday morning that it was “a lovely remembrance.”

“It was beautiful … that everybody was together,” she said.

In the future, Straus said she hopes Highland Park “gets rid of its reputation” as the site of the violence.

This year’s programming was different than last year’s, which didn’t include a parade. Next year’s might be different still based on feedback from the community, Rotering said.

Some 2,000 people are in contact with Highland Park’s Resiliency Division, which provides resources to those impacted by the shooting, the mayor said. “And they obviously are the ones we need to hear from and we’ll listen to the most.”

The parade this year was expected to have 36 entrants, scaled down from years past, Rotering said. The city didn’t plan to host fireworks or any evening events. But thousands of people were still expected to attend festivities in the afternoon, the mayor added.

The Arts Center Highland Park also planned to hold an indoor art picnic Thursday, intended for residents who weren’t ready to attend a traditional parade. The programming was not affiliated with the city, but Rotering said she supported the alternative approach.

Even two years later, the ripple effects of the shooting are still being felt in Illinois and far beyond.

Just this week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a preliminary case on the Illinois’ ban on certain high-powered guns and high-capacity magazines, enacted after advocacy from community members and politicians in the wake of the 2022 mass shooting. At the same time, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the ban’s constitutionality.

State Rep. Bob Morgan of Deerfield, who sponsored the proposal to ban assault weapons, said after walking the parade route Thursday that he believes Thomas is “on an island and I don’t think it reflects the court, so I’m cautiously optimistic.”

Morgan, who was also marching in the parade when the attack happened two years ago, said the day will always be hard for the community.

“But it was really important for me and a lot of other people to show up and continue to celebrate the Fourth of July and also reflect as a community,” he said.

Also in recent weeks, the alleged shooter in the case surprised a packed courtroom by refusing to go along with a guilty plea deal worked out by his own attorneys. Victims and their families said at the time they were disappointed by the reversal from the defendant, Robert Crimo III.

“We were yet again shown his complete and blatant disregard for humans, for anyone, for all of us in that courtroom,” said Leah Sundheim, whose mother, Jacquelyn “Jacki” Sundheim, was killed in the attack.

In rebuilding the city’s celebrations, much of the discussion has centered around Highland Park’s youngest residents, Rotering told reporters. She has previously told the story of reassuring a third grader who, on a class visit to City Hall, asked if they’d ever be able to celebrate Independence Day again.

“So many children were present that day, and so many children were impacted,” Rotering said Thursday. “And as we work to provide those resources for them to get the necessary mental health support … we’ve also heard the need to give them a future, to give them hope, to give them a sense of moving forward.”