She sprang into action immediately, flinging open the shul doors and ushering everyone nearby inside, calling out, “This is a safe haven. Come in!”
Among the victims identified by authorities were Stephen Straus, 88, a financial advisor who had worked well past retirement age; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63, events coordinator at a Reform temple in the town; and Irina McCarthy, 35, daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants and mother of Aiden, age 2, whose father Kevin was also killed in the attack.
Mrs. Jenna McKenna, a school counselor at Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov, was an eyewitness to the horrific events. On the morning of July 4, McKenna dressed her nearly two-year-old daughter Avigail in a cute red, white, and blue ensemble, slathered her in sunscreen, and made the half-hour drive from her home in West Rogers Park, the Chicago neighborhood home to the city’s largest frum community, out to Highland Park to meet her mother and her two grandmothers, 85 and 91. The four generations of women then sat in the same spot the family has reserved for over 60 years, to enjoy the town’s iconic Independence Day parade.
It was Avigail’s first parade, and she was hoisted onto her grandmother’s shoulders so she could see the Highland Park High School marching band come through, followed by bicycles, fire trucks, and parade floats.
Jenna gives a narration of what unfolded next in her head, as Robert Crimo III climbed a fire escape to the roof of a Highland Park business and opened fire on the parade, sending hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers, and children on bicycles fleeing in terror:
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