Remembering the victims of the Highland Park parade shooting

Author: Adriana Diaz / CBS
Published:
The seven victims of the Highland Park parade shooting. Credit: CBS

As the Highland Park community mourns and survivors begin their long road to recovery, new details are emerging about the victims killed in the Fourth of July parade shooting.

The victims were parents and grandparents. Most were at the parade with their families.

The oldest victim was 88-year-old Stephen Straus. His niece said her uncle still went to work every day, calling him a “gentle soul.”

Jacquelyn Sundheim was once a teacher at the North Shore Congregation Israel. Her nephew called her an “island of solace” who embodied “a love and acceptance of difference.”

Nicolas Toledo Zaragoza, a father of eight from Mexico, was visiting family in the U.S. One of his grandchildren said he was adventurous and funny.

Eduardo Uvaldo died at the hospital. He was with his family on July 4.

“He was a loving, caring father, grandfather, a great grandfather,” Uvaldo family spokesperson Jackie Tapia said. “He loved his wife, for sure.”

Parents Irina and Kevin McCarthy left behind their only child, who is just 2 years old. Witnesses say Kevin McCarthy was killed shielding his son from the gunman’s bullets.

“He was saying ‘mommy, daddy,’ so I went back up to look for his mom and dad and then I saw the scene. Carnage,” said Gregory Ring, who found the toddler covered in blood at the scene of the massacre.

Gregory and his wife Dana took the little boy home, where he watched Mickey Mouse.

“He was happy. He was fine. He was playing with our smallest daughter,” Gregory Ring told CBS News.

Meanwhile, the Rings had launched a desperate social media search for the boy’s family.

Hours later, a detective arrived and reunited the boy with his grandparents. The Rings told CBS News they felt both grief and gratitude when they went to bed that night.

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