Highland Park moves forward in celebrating second July 4 parade since mass shooting in 2022

Moving forward as a community was the theme for many at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade on Friday.

The parade returned for the second year since the mass shooting in 2022 that claimed the lives of seven and left 48 wounded.

Brenda Quintanilla still remembers grabbing her baby and now-13-year-old daughter and scurrying away from the gunfire. She was near Central Avenue and McGovern Street with her mother and her three kids.

“Usually, we’d be more in the center, but since my daughter was so young, we decided to hang back,” she said.

She heard shots down the street, and the area erupted into chaos. She lost track of her mother and son.

“We were running for our lives,” said Quintanilla, 38.

She’s been coming to the parade for more than 30 years, despite no longer living nearby. Her family heads to Highland Park each year from Waukegan.

Quintanilla and her family sat in lawn chairs on Green Bay Road and Laurel Avenue this year for the parade.

“We were kind of uncomfortable, there was a hesitation,” she said of coming back last year. “But we put our fear off to the side and just kept coming. Because this has been our place.”

Friday’s was the first parade since Robert Crimo III pleaded guilty in March to the shooting and was sentenced to life in prison, which Quintanilla said was “a relief.”

“But at the same time, we’re still kind of cautious because anything can happen,” she said. “We can’t predict the future.”

The parade followed a remembrance ceremony to honor the seven who lost their lives in the shooting on July 4, 2022.

It was largely business as usual for attendees and participants on an overcast morning with light rain during the upbeat “Dream Team”-themed parade. A procession of city officials, tumblers, bands and groups weaved through the streets.

The parade’s route, like last year, again bypassed the block of Central Avenue between First and Second streets, where the shooting happened. There was a heavy police presence along the parade route and its perimeter.

Attendees came dressed in patriotic garb, with some wearing “Highland Park Strong” shirts.

Debbi and Andy Platt of Northbrook looked forward to seeing their son and grandchildren march in the parade. Their 2-year-old and 1-year-old grandkids joined the Chicago Jewish Alliance, tossing candy to the crowd.

It was Platts’ first time at the parade.

“We felt there would be a lot of police present, and there is,” said Debbi Platt, 64. “Which is both comforting and disturbing at the same time.”

“You can’t let that act stop a tradition and stop what we normally do,” said Andy Platt, 63. “You can’t let it change what you do and who you are.”

To some, attending the parade was an act of reclaiming the event.

William Berger and his family moved to Highland Park in 2020. In 2022 they attended the parade for the first time. They were “really pumped” to go after they’d spent so much time isolated and indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

He vividly remembers seeing marching band members running down the street toward them. A woman crashed her bike in front of them and took off running.

“You could hear it, like fireworks,” he said of the shots.

Berger, his wife and two kids ran to their car. When they got home, Berger started barbecuing in an effort to keep the atmosphere normal. His kids, now 10 and 5, utilized counseling resources provided by the city.

The family attended last year’s parade and plans to attend every year from now on.

“I don’t really want to be intimidated,” Berger said. “We’ve survived everything from 9/11 to all kinds of things in between. I think it’s just part of the American spirit of getting up, dusting yourself off and remaining strong and vigilant.”

Earlier, a gathering honored the victims of the mass shooting at the Moraine during a candle-lighting and remembrance ceremony.

The theme for the ceremony was growing forward together.

“Three years have passed since the learning that forever changed us. In the beginning, we counted days, each one heavy with disbelief. … Now we mark the years and still the memory of that day lives vividly in our minds,” Mayor Nancy Rotering said. “But alongside that pain, something else has quietly taken root — connection, a shared commitment to one another.”

Melissa Burke, a victim specialist with the Lake County state’s attorney’s office, spoke about the journey of grief and healing.

“Remembrance becoming part of everyday life is a good way of describing what it means to have resilience,” Burke said. “Resilience doesn’t mean preventing or moving. It means moving forward, mindful of all that we have experienced and lost. It means choosing to embrace new experiences while continuing to remember beautiful memories.”

As attendees honored each life lost in the massacre, they hugged and linked arms, holding candles. Some shed tears.

“When we are resilient, what we lost becomes part of who we are,” Burke said. “We grow as individuals and as a community, not by forgetting or moving past something traumatic but by allowing that to be a part of it, without defining who we are.”