- Siblings Isabella, Justin, and Addison Dickman used to attend Highland Park's Fourth of July parade every year.
- At the last minute, they decided to skip the parade that erupted in chaos after a gunman opened fire.
- The mass shooting left six people dead and dozens more injured.
The Fourth of July parade was an annual tradition for the Dickman siblings, who have lived in Highland Park their entire lives.
The three teens, ages 14 to 19, decided to skip Monday's parade at the last minute. Their usual spot along the parade route was just one block away from where gunfire, initially mistaken for fireworks, sent parade-goers scrambling at about 10:14 a.m. Six people were killed and dozens more were injured.
"I'm still in shock that something like this happened. I just can't imagine how people felt who were here during that yesterday," 15-year-old Justin Dickman told Insider. "I don't know if there's ever going to be a parade in Highland Park again."
The city's "Fourth Fest" has been canceled, and the public is being urged to avoid the downtown area.
The Dickman siblings flipped through pictures of them as young children attending the parade, standing in the spot where people were running for their lives from gunshots the day before.
"We pulled up pictures of us when we were little at every parade, and it's just astonishing looking back knowing that someone decided to shoot the parade, that there's hundreds of little kids just riding their bikes," Isabella Dickman, 19, told Insider. "There's the pep parade before, and people are just happy celebrating, and then it turns into a mass shooting."
Police identified a person of interest, 21-year-old Robert "Bobby" E. Crimo III, and took him into custody without incident on Monday, following a manhunt that went on for several hours.
"It was a relief [when they caught him] and just anger, pure anger. Why would someone do this to our town and on such a day when there's so many kids and innocent civilians around?" Justin said. "Why would you bring a weapon of war to a community and scar this community for how many countless years this is going to resonate with everyone?"
During a press conference on Tuesday, Chris Covelli, spokesperson for Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said Crimo was in possession of two rifles and multiple other firearms, all of which were legally purchased in Crimo's name. Covelli said the AR-15-style weapon used in the shooting was a "high-powered rifle that shot high-velocity rounds."
The shooting in Highland Park comes on the heels of shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, that prompted fresh calls for nationwide gun control. Less than two weeks ago, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law, which enacted tougher gun restrictions. Still, the act fell short of sweeping calls for major reform, such as an assault weapons ban.
The Chicago suburb had previously banned assault rifles like AR-15s and AK-47s in 2013. Justin told Insider that lax gun laws are endangering communities across the country and that lawmakers should witness the carnage.
"If this isn't enough, then they should come to see what their loose gun laws have done because they're tearing up communities, community by community. Every day, I feel like it's another community that's being torn apart, and now it's our community," Justin said.
"It's crazy to think a mass shooter is in your neighbor, or is five minutes away from you," Addison Dickman, 14, told Insider. "Wasn't Uvalde the last one? Now we're here in Highland Park. Next where are we going to be? Adults and children shouldn't lose their lives because they want to do fun things, or go to school, or go to the grocery store. It should be safe but it isn't."
The Highland Park shooting was just one of 314 mass shootings in the United States thus far in 2022.
"You never think your town will be on the list of mass shootings in the United States until it is," Isabella said. "It doesn't feel real."