- wording
- BBC News World
Updated 4 hours
image source, Toledo Family
Nicholas Toledo was 78 years old.
Nicolás Toledo was not very convinced regarding going to see the Monday morning Independence Day parade in Highland Park.
The 78-year-old Mexican needed a walker to walk and knew it would be difficult for him to navigate the crowded sidewalks in that city north of Chicago.
His family, however, I didn’t want to leave him home alone. They were all going to attend and it was a good opportunity to spend a day together.
There were 15 of the family and they chose a good place to see the parade in the center of Highland Park.
The allegorical cars began to pass, says Xochil Toledo, one of his granddaughters who accompanied him. Suddenly chaos broke out: Robert Crimo, a 22-year-old American, started shooting into the crowd with a high-powered rifle.
More than 70 shots, according to the police investigation.
Nicolás Toledo was one of the seven deceased left by this attack on July 4.
This Tuesday Crimo was accused of seven counts of murder.
“A day that was supposed to be full of joy and happiness turned into a dream full of terror and pain,” says Toledo’s granddaughter in a message on her Facebook profile.
Authorities have identified other fatalities as Katherine Goldstein, 64, Irina McCarthy (35), Kevin McCarthy (37), Jacquelyn Sundheim (63) and Stephen Straus (88).
Irina and Kevin McCarthy were a young couple who 2-year-old baby left orphaned who, according to local media, was found following the shooting alone and bloodied. He has already been reunited with his relatives.
“A Guardian Angel”
Xochil Toledo explains that her grandfather was sitting in the middle of the family when the parade started.
As a car with a gang passed by on Central Avenue in Highland Park, his grandfather looked happy, “enjoying the moment.”
image source, Getty Images
They heard gunshots, which at first they thought were part of the show. But then the bullets began to fall right where the family was.
Three hit the grandfather, causing his death.
“He saved all of our lives. They might have gone [las balas] once morest me, once morest my boyfriend or once morest my cousins,” Xochil Toledo told the newspaper Chicago Sun Times.
One of Toledo’s sons tried to protect him and was shot in the arm, but everyone else was able to get to safety following the attack.
The family says that Toledo is “andGuardian angel” who protected them.
They opened a fundraiser that in just over 24 hours received responses from more than 1,200 people and more than US$60,000 in aid.
“There are no words to say how much we thank the community for all their help in these difficult times for our family. All donations will go towards funeral expenses,” they wrote.
image source, Archyde.com
Some people have returned to the site of the attack to lay flowers for the victims of the shooting.
Nicolás Toledo was visiting his family north of Chicago, following two years of not being able to travel to the US due to pandemic restrictions.
Era originally from the state of Morelosin central Mexico, but for many years he worked in the United States, where a good part of his family lives, made up of his wife and eight children.
He had dual Mexican-American citizenship, so he spent long periods with his family in Illinois.
“We brought him here so he might have a better life,” his granddaughter told the newspaper. The New York Times. “His children wanted to take care of him and be more in his life and then this tragedy happened.”
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