July Fourth Parade Shooter Sentenced to Life in Prison

An Illinois judge on Thursday sentenced a man to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 2022 mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb that killed seven people, the state's attorney's office said.

Robert Crimo III, 24, pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery in March shortly before his trial was set to begin for the shooting in Highland Park that also injured over 40 people.

Crimo was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Victoria Rossetti to seven consecutive life sentences, followed by 50 years for 48 counts of attempted murder. Anyone found guilty of committing two or more murders in Illinois receives an automatic life sentence in prison without possibility of parole.

"This court hopes this sentence brings a sense of justice and an end to the continued horror," Rossetti said, according to a Chicago Tribune report from the courtroom.

Crimo, who told investigators that he planned the attack in 2017 or 2018, was not present at his sentencing on Thursday nor during hearings on Wednesday when relatives of those killed described the impact of the crime, according to the state's attorney's office.

"I've accepted, more or less, my dad's death and absence from my life, but I can't make peace with the way he died," the Tribune quoted Jonathan Straus as telling the court. Straus's 88-year-old father, Stephen Straus, was killed.

Crimo is accused of climbing onto the roof of a building in downtown Highland Park, a suburb 25 miles north of Chicago, and opening fire on spectators and participants at a Fourth of July parade in 2022.

Crimo's father pleaded guilty to multiple counts of reckless conduct in 2023 for helping him obtain a gun that he used in the attack. Robert Crimo Jr. was sentenced to two years of probation and 60 days in custody, as well as 100 hours of public service.