Investigators stated they believed the gunman acted alone in the course of the capturing. Prosecutors declined to say on Wednesday whether or not they have been contemplating costs in opposition to any members of the accused man’s household.
Officers haven’t stated what they consider could have motivated the gunman, however have stated they didn’t have any purpose to consider the assault was pushed by racial or spiritual hate. Some in Highland Park’s giant Jewish group stated they acknowledged the accused man.
Martin Blumenthal, a member of the North Suburban Lubavitch Chabad synagogue in Highland Park who’s in control of safety there, stated he recalled the person from a Passover service this 12 months. Discovering his look suspicious, Mr. Blumenthal stated he surreptitiously knelt down at one level in the course of the service and reached below the person’s seat to pat down a small backpack he had carried in. It didn’t seem to carry any weapons, Mr. Blumenthal stated.
Mr. Blumenthal stated he’s now satisfied that the person went to the synagogue to check it as a possible goal. “He was undoubtedly casing the place out,” he stated.
Because the court docket course of started within the case, Highland Park residents continued to grieve the deaths of their neighbors on Wednesday.
The victims included Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78, who had lately moved again to Highland Park from Mexico, and who went to the parade together with his household regardless of not desirous to; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63, a beloved worker of a neighborhood synagogue whom one pal known as “an attractive ray of sunshine”; Stephen Straus, a monetary adviser who, at age 88, nonetheless took the prepare on daily basis to his workplace at a brokerage agency in Chicago; Katherine Goldstein, 64; Eduardo Uvaldo, 69, of the close by suburb of Waukegan; and Irina and Kevin McCarthy, ages 35 and 37, a pair who left behind a toddler son.
Mitch Smith reported from Highland Park, and Robert Chiarito from Waukegan, In poor health. Adam Goldman, Michael Levenson, Frances Robles and Luke Vander Ploeg contributed reporting.
