Six of the seven people killed in the Highland Park Fourth of July massacre have been identified by authorities on Tuesday.
The victims are Steve Straus, 88; Katherine Baldstein, 64; Jacki Sondheim, 63; Nicholas Toledo Zaragoza, 78; and husband and wife Irina and Kevin McCarthy, 35 and 37.
The McCarthys’ two-year-old son Aiden was discovered walking alone after the incident and is left behind.
A day after 22-year-old Robert Crimo opened fire on the parade in Highland Park, an affluent neighbourhood to the north of Chicago, the death toll increased to seven when one of the 47 injured passed away in the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. The injured count now stands at 46
After a doctor who ran into the bloodbath described the shooting victims as being “blown up” by the attacker’s high-powered rifle, the names of the majority of the victims have now been made public.
Dr. David Baum, a longtime obstetrician in Highland Park, was there to witness his two-year-old grandson march in the parade with his wife and children.
He jumped into the fray to try to aid the victims when shots were fired and others fled.
In an interview with CNN, Baum described seeing victims with ‘wartime’ and ‘unspeakable’ injuries.
‘The people who were gone were blown up by that gunfire,’ Baum said, ‘The horrific scene of some of those bodies is unspeakable for the average person.’
‘Having been a physician, I’ve seen things in ERs, you know, you do see lots of blood. But the bodies were literally – some of the bodies – there was an evisceration injury from the power of this gun and the bullets.’
‘There was another person who had an unspeakable head injury. Unspeakable,’ he said to CNN.
Baum also described the ‘horror’ of a community changed forever in thirty quick seconds.
‘What I saw was just families’ lives forever changed because they were walking down with their kids and their scooters and somebody who shouldn’t have had access to a high-powered rifle got up on a rooftop and decided to do what he wanted to do.
‘And the injuries that I saw – I never served – but those are wartime injuries. Those are what are seen in victims of war, not victims at a parade,’ Baum said.
Baum said there were at least three doctors, a nurse, and a nurse practitioner who joined him in treating victims. He recalled paramedics covering up victims who they knew were dead at the scene.
‘The people that died at the scene – and pretty much they all died at the scene – the paramedics walked around covered them up and said ‘black’, I guess they have a code for ‘dead, cannot try and resuscitate.”
One of the victims identified, Jacki Sundheim, a longtime teacher at the North Shore Congregation Israel synagogue, was shot and killed by the gunman, the synagogue announced in an email to congregants Monday night.
‘Jacki was a lifelong congregant of NSCI and a cherished member of NSCI’s staff team for decades,’ the synagogue wrote in an email that announced her murder ‘Jacki’s work, kindness and warmth touched us all.’
Sundheim, was the Reform synagogue’s events and b’nei mitzvah coordinator, according to its website. She is survived by her husband Bruce and daughter Leah, the Times of Israel reported.
‘There are no words sufficient to express the depth of our grief for Jacki’s death,’ the synagogue added.
Another casualty was Nicolas Toledo, a devoted Mexican grandfather who was 76 years old. His blood spattered on them, and according to his relatives, he was shot in the head as he sat in his wheelchair.
According to his granddaughter’s account to the New York Times, Toledo had no desire to take part in the march in Highland Park, Illinois.
However, due to his physical limitations that forced him to use a wheelchair and his family’s demand that he go, he complied.
The injured individuals ranged in age from eight to 85. Although there is a sizable Jewish community in the region, police have not yet disclosed a potential reason for Monday’s massacre.
Less than 15 minutes after the parade started, the shooting started. Police captured Crimo after a long manhunt.