2022 Highland Park parade shooting

On the morning of July 4, 2022, a mass shooting occurred during an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb about 25 miles north of Chicago. The shooting began at 10:14 a.m., roughly 15 minutes after the parade started, when a gunman fired a rifle from the rooftop of the Ross Cosmetics building at the corner of Central Avenue and 2nd Street, having accessed the roof via an unsecured ladder. Using a Smith & Wesson M&P15 rifle with three 30-round magazines, the shooter fired a total of 83 shots at spectators and parade participants. Seven people were killed — five at the scene and two later at hospitals — and 48 others were wounded by bullets or shrapnel. Victims ranged in age from 8 to 88 and included two Mexican nationals, three Jewish victims, and a mother of two. One surviving victim was left paraplegic.

More than 100 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responded. The shooter fled the scene, dropping the rifle during his escape; it was recovered by police within minutes. He drove toward Madison, Wisconsin, where he reportedly considered but abandoned targeting another Independence Day event, before discarding his phone in Middleton, Wisconsin. He was spotted by a driver and passengers near Wadsworth, Illinois, who relayed his location to 911 over roughly 13 minutes. Police stopped and apprehended 21-year-old Robert Eugene Crimo III without incident in Lake Forest, Illinois, at approximately 6:30 p.m., more than eight hours after the shooting began.

Crimo was charged on July 5, 2022, with seven counts of first-degree murder and confessed the following day. On July 27, 2022, a Lake County grand jury indicted him on 117 felony counts, later described as 21 counts of first-degree murder, 48 counts of attempted murder, and 48 counts of aggravated battery. After initially pleading not guilty, Crimo pleaded guilty to all 69 remaining counts (aggravated battery charges having been dropped) on March 3, 2025, shortly before his trial was set to begin. On April 24, 2025, he was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 2,400 years for the attempted-murder counts. He was transferred to Stateville Correctional Center the following day.

Investigators found no confirmed racial or religious motivation, though Crimo had an extensive online presence including material described by researchers as gravitating toward far-right and neo-fascist themes; he had also been asked to leave a local synagogue several months before the attack. Law enforcement had prior contact with Crimo, including a 2019 suicide-related call and a September 2019 report that led police to seize knives and a sword after a family member said he threatened to "kill everyone." Illinois's red flag law was not invoked in either instance, and Crimo later legally obtained a firearm owner identification card sponsored by his father, Robert Crimo Jr. In December 2022, Crimo Jr. was charged with seven counts of reckless conduct related to sponsoring that application; he pleaded guilty in November 2023 to seven misdemeanor counts and was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation. Survivors and families have also filed civil lawsuits against the rifle manufacturer, the Illinois State Police, and Crimo's father. The shooting contributed to Illinois enacting a statewide assault weapons ban signed into law in January 2023.