‘To Celebrate and to Memorialize’: Highland Park Independence Day Parade marches on while remembering 2022 tragedy

Manny Price was standing near the corner of Second Street and Central Avenue in downtown Highland Park on July 4, 2022, when he heard the shots ring out — a man on a nearby rooftop firing into the parade crowd.    

Now three years to the day, Price, a U.S. Air Force veteran, once again participated in Highland Park’s annual Independence Day Parade, this time in a truck alongside other local American Legion Post 145 members that skirted around the block where Price and countless others experienced the tragedy.

“I just escaped what happened and I’m glad that we’re able to do it, but it was a terrible, tragic day,” Price said. “To celebrate and to memorialize, both things. A celebration and memorial for those poor victims and the people that were injured, that were shot — some of them are still recovering.”

The city’s 2025 Independence Day Parade festivities featured more than 37 groups and drew more than 200 people downtown before the march ended at Sunset Woods Park. It was preceded by a 9 a.m. public remembrance ceremony at The Moraine to commemorate the victims of the traumatic 2022 shooting.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and Lake County State’s Attorney Victim Specialist Melissa Burke both gave remarks to a solemn room of approximately 80 people before Burke led a candle-lighting ceremony and city officials facilitated a community mosaic.

“We are here today not because our remembrance has faded, but because it has become part of who we are,” Rotering said. “This day, this moment, holds all the weight of our love, our sorrow and our resolve.”

“Today continues to be about the victims and survivors and everyone who has been impacted by what happened three years ago on July 4, 2022,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said outside the remembrance ceremony.  “Our office will always be there for those who need us.”

The man who killed seven people and shot more than 50 in total on July 4, 2022, in Highland Park was sentenced by a Lake County judge in April to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. 

The life sentences equated to one for each of the victims of the attack: Katie Goldstein, Irina McCarthy, Kevin Michael McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacki Lovi Sundheim, Nicolás Toledo and Eduardo Uvaldo.

Bundles of fresh white roses glistened with rain Friday morning in the temporary memorial next to Highland Park City Hall dedicated to those seven killed, while a police drone and uniformed officers on bikes roved downtown in the hour leading up to the parade’s launch. 

Leo Cole was eating breakfast with his wife and daughter at a nearby cafe, but the Highland Park family planned to leave the area before the march began. Cole said he and his wife were near the Independence Day Parade in 2022 when they heard calls of a shooting and turned around. 

“They’ve got drones coming around, the roofs are clear, they’ve got more police presence. It’s going to be a lot safer. The odds it’ll happen again are crazy,” Cole said. “But the memory is what keeps you — I don’t need to walk it again.”

Jesse Benner, Cole’s daughter, was at the beach with her husband on July 4, 2022, but still remembers the feeling of being separated from her parents while the shooter remained on the loose.

“We see the memorial all the time by town hall, and I obviously grieve for everybody, but I don’t feel any, like, Highland Park pride that I need to be at this parade and relive it,” Benner said. “Even though we weren’t here, it was extremely traumatic and it affected all of our lives.”

By 11 a.m., the morning’s light rain-shower had cleared and the Navy Band Great Lakes had just finished playing standards for a loose crowd of early comers.

Rotering and Highland Park City Council members headed the parade, waving to the crowd while holding a city banner.   

Leslie and Keith Westman stood on Laurel Avenue while the officials passed. The two Highland Park parents came to celebrate the holiday and see their son march.

Leslie said it felt “nostalgic” to attend and acknowledged there was still some “anxiety” that had driven some of her friends not to attend. 

“We’re excited. It’s the Fourth of July. The parade is back,” Keith Westman said. “It feels good, back to normal and it’s a great reason to celebrate.”

Arthur Rabinowitz, a longtime Highland Park resident, said the city Independence Day Parade has always been a big part of his family’s Fourth of July experience as an expression of their civic pride. 

“To see that 40 years later, Highland Park is still having a parade, I think it’s a great testimony to the resilience of the community and that hate and evil will never win,” Rabinowitz said.

Among others, the parade featured the Lake County Democrats, an aerial gymnastics demonstration from the Jesse White Tumblers, a group wearing corn-cob costumes known as the Cornettes, three decorated horses, a juggler and a live band playing rock covers from atop a truck trailer. 

Nancy Goldberg, president of the League of Women Voters, said her group has marched in Highland Park’s Independence Day parade for decades. She was present during the attack in 2022; the day remains emotional for members but she doesn’t want the memory to discourage the group’s mission.

“We’re proud to be here. We’re nonpartisan but really all about defending democracy. That’s why we’re here,” Goldberg said. “We have less people who want to be a part of it because of the emotional ties to what happened that day.”

The tail end of the parade wound past Central Avenue and Green Bay Road around 11:40 a.m. and spectators were starting to dissipate.

Brian and Leslie Berish, two Highland Park residents, said the number of people marching felt “significantly more sparse” compared to years past.

“It’s not going to be the same; it’s always going to be on our mind. But you don’t stop everything and let the mad win,” Leslie Berish said, adding that the two plan on participating in the parade next year to help fill out its ranks.

“I think this is important, to keep doing it. I feel good,” Brian Westman said. “It’s unfortunate. Obviously it’s terrible what happened, but we have to continue and celebrate what July 4th means.”

Joaquin and Consuelo Martinez sat on a blanket with their children near the end of the parade.

The couple moved to Lake Forest in 2024 to be closer to family. They weren’t in Highland Park when the shooting took place but said it was still on their mind while they celebrated the holiday.

“This is the nice thing about our country; it’s about celebration. It’s great and it has its faults, like anybody, but you still celebrate the great things,” Joaquin Martinez said. “You can’t let the past dictate where you go in the future, right?”

“We wanted to share the Fourth of July with our family even though it’s a little bittersweet today given the current political climate,” Consuelo Martinez said. “You can’t live in fear.”