The Highland Park parade shooting shook Chicago on July 4, 2022: What's happened in the year since?

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- On the morning of July 4, 2022, a gunman fired upon paradegoers in Highland Park, killing seven people and wounding dozens more. 

After a day-long search for the suspect, police arrested Robert Crimo III.

Investigators believe the suspect was disguised in women's clothing during the shooting in an attempt to conceal himself. 

After the shooting, he is believed to have blended into the crowd and gone to his mother's home, eventually driving away in a Honda Fit. 

Who is the suspected Highland Park shooter?

Police said he then drove up to Madison, Wisconsin, and considered using the firearm he had in his vehicle to commit another shooting at a celebration he saw there. He returned to Chicago's north suburbs that evening where he was arrested in his vehicle. 

The 21-year-old suspect has pleaded not guilty to 117 felony counts for the attack.  

Crimo's father, Robert Crimo Jr. has pleaded not guilty to felony charges that he recklessly helped his son obtain a gun license.

Robert Crimo Jr. was indicted on seven counts of felony reckless conduct. He is accused of sponsoring his son's Firearm Owner's Identification card application just three months after a September 2019 incident in which police were called to the family's home because the younger Crimo was threatening to "kill everyone" with a collection of knives and swords. 

Investigators also said Crimo admitted to making explosive devices years before the massacre by learning about it online.

When later questioned by investigators, Crimo said he had considered planting explosives as part of his deadly attack but didn't.

"I think it's pretty clear what needs to be done," Highland Park Mayor Nancy Roetering said in the days after the shooting. "We need this nation to have a very strong conversation about what it means if we are coming together to celebrate our freedom and independence and people have to face a terrorist on a rooftop with guns that were obtained legally. That's a problem."

Roetering said she knew Crimo, recalling that he was a member of her Cub Scout pack. 

Who were the victims of the Highland Park parade shooting?

Those who died ranged in age from 35 to 88.

Aiden McCarthy's mom and dad, Irina, 35, and Kevin McCarthy, 38, were both shot and killed. Aiden was found by Lauren Silva under his father's body. The two-year-old was eventually reunited with his grandparents. A Go Fund Me campaign has raised nearly $3.3 million for Aiden's care. 

The other five people who died: 

• 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim of Highland Park
• 88-year-old Stephen Straus of Highland Park
• 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza of Morelos, Mexico
• 64-year-old Katherine Goldstein of Highland Park
• 69-year-old Eduardo Uvaldo, of Waukegan  
  

The ages of those wounded ranged from eight to more than 80 years old. An 8-year-old boy, Cooper Roberts, was one of the youngest victims and among the 38 people injured. He was paralyzed from the waist down when his spine was severed during the shooting.  

Earlier this year, his mom, Keely Roberts, said her son has a very long physical and emotional road ahead of him – but he is going to school more often – and is also now enjoying wheelchair tennis.  

Six months after the shooting, CBS 2's Charlie De Mar sat down with a number of people directly impacted – from survivors to families who lost loved ones, emergency room doctors who treated some of the shooting victims, and the mayor.

All of them are on different emotional journeys as they look back at the past six months.

"It's something I think about every day," said survivor Lauren Bennett. "The trauma is very deep and very real."

"There's a silence that you don't really anticipate and that's been hard to fill," added Leah Sundheim, whose mother, Jacki, was killed in the massacre.

Plans for July 4 in Highland Park this year

There will be no parade this year in Highland Park. 

The day will begin at 10 a.m. with a remembrance ceremony at City Hall in honor of the parade shooting victims.

Following that will be a moment of silence at 10:14 a.m. - the moment the first shots were fired.

In place of floats and cars, people are invited to walk together. At 11 a.m., a community walk will follow the parade route.

Plans also call for a community picnic at Sunset Woods Park at 11:30 a.m., and an evening drone show instead of fireworks – in part because of noise concerns.