The gunman who opened fire during a 2022 Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, in a mass shooting that killed seven was sentenced Thursday to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
“The court finds he’s irrevocably depraved,” Judge Victoria Rossetti said during the sentencing, according to NBC News. “He is beyond any rehabilitation.”
Robert Crimo III, who was not present during Thursday’s sentencing, pleaded guilty last month to 21 counts of murder, three for each of the seven people who died, and 48 counts of attempted murder.
After evidence was presented, victims read their impact statements.
“You took my mom,” said Leah Sundheim, the child of Jacquelyn Sundheim, according to The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. “I will never be able to summarize how simply extraordinary she was, and how devastating and out of balance my life is without her.”
Keely Roberts’ son Cooper Roberts was 8 when he was shot in the back during the mass shooting and became paralyzed from the waist down. Keely Roberts called the shooter “cowardly” for not attending the sentencing.
“You will not get my sad stories,” she said. “You have no power over my life.”
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said in a news conference Thursday that the sentencing was about the victims, survivors and the Highland Park community.
“The amount of trauma and pain that they have gone through in this case is something that is hard to describe,” Rinehart said.
He continued, saying the shooter has “never shown one bit of remorse.”
“It was clear he was unable to confront what he had done,” Rinehart said about the shooter not showing up for his sentencing.
Nancy Rotering, the mayor of Highland Park, Illinois, said at the news conference that the sentencing is another call to action for lawmakers to “take decisive action to prevent future tragedies.”
“No community should ever have to endure this kind of devastation,” Rotering said.
On July 4, 2022, the shooter opened fire with a rifle from a nearby rooftop during Highland Park’s annual Fourth of July parade. The mass shooting killed seven people and injured 48 more and the shooter was arrested about eight hours after the shooting began. Victims of the shooting ranged in ages 8 to 88.
The shooter’s father was also charged in connection to the shooting. Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty in November 2023 to seven counts of misdemeanor reckless conduct for helping his then-teenage son get a firearms license to buy guns. He served 60 days in prison and is still on two years of probation.
The shooting resulted in lawsuits, including one from the victims who sued Smith and Wesson, the manufacturer of the rifle used in the shooting, for allegedly targeting its ads to young men who might commit mass violence. The case is ongoing.
