Aiden McCarthy’s photo was shared on social media groups in the Chicago area within hours of July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park, accompanied by pleas to help identify the 2-year-old boy found at the scene bloody and lonely and to reunite with his family.
On Tuesday, friends and authorities confirmed that the boy’s parents, Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35, were among seven people killed in the tragedy.
“Two years old, Aiden was left in an unimaginable position; to grow up without her parents,” Irina Colon wrote on a GoFundMe the account she created for her family and Aiden, who were reunited with her grandparents on Monday night.
McCarthys’ friends said Irina’s parents would take care of the boy in the future.
Four of the others who died were identified Tuesday as Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63 years old; Stephen Straus, 88 years old; and Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78 years old. All victims were from Highland Park, with the exception of Toledo-Zaragoza, who was visiting family from Morelos, Mexico.
Officials have yet to identify a seventh victim.
Portraits of some of the dead began to emerge on Tuesday as investigators continued to search for evidence in the shooting that left at least seven people dead and 30 injured.
Irina McCarthy’s childhood friend, Angela Vella, describes McCarthy as cheerful, personable and “a bit like a tomboy” who still likes to dress well.
“She definitely has her own style, which I have always admired,” Vella said in a brief interview.
Straus, a Chicago financial advisor, was one of the first observers at the parade and attends it every year, his grandson said.
Brothers Maxwell and Tobias Straus describe their grandfather as a kind and active man who enjoys walking, biking and participating in community events.
“The way he lived, you would think he was still middle aged,” Maxwell Straus said in an interview.
The brothers recall Sunday dinners with their grandparents as a favorite tradition. They said they ate with him the night before he was killed.
“America’s gun culture is killing grandparents,” says Maxwell Straus. “It was terrible.”
Sundheim, meanwhile, is honored as a lifelong parishioner and “beloved” employee at the North Shore Israel Congregation, where she has worked for decades, the synagogue said on its website. mine. Sundheim teaches at the synagogue’s preschool and organizes coordinated events including bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies.
“Jacki’s work, kindness and warmth touched all of us,” the synagogue leaders wrote in a message on their website. “Words are not enough to express our deep grief over Jacki’s death and our sympathy for her family and loved ones.”
Toledo-Zaragoza was killed the day his 23-year-old granddaughter, Xochil Toledo, described it as “a fun family day” that had “turned into a horrible nightmare for all of us”.
On a GoFundMe page to raise money for Toledo’s funeral expenses, Xochil Toledo said her grandfather was a “life lover, creative, adventurous and funny”.
“As a family, we are broken, crippled,” she said.
Toledo-Zaragoza went to Illinois to visit family about two months ago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. His family wants him to stay permanently because of the injuries he sustained after being hit by a car a few years ago during a previous visit to Highland Park. The newspaper reported that he was hit three times on Monday and died at the scene.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to attend the parade because of the crowd and his limited mobility, which forced him to use a walker, but Xochil Toledo said his family didn’t want to leave him alone.
Katherine Goldstein’s husband describes her as an easygoing companion who enjoys visiting remote locations.
“She didn’t complain,” Craig Goldstein told The New York Times. “She’s always with her on the trip.”
Goldstein is a mother of two daughters in their 20s, Cassie and Alana. Craig Goldstein, a hospital doctor, told the newspaper she attended the parade with her eldest daughter so Cassie could reunite with friends from high school.
Dr. Goldstein said his wife recently lost her mother and was thinking about arrangements she might want upon her death.
He recounted that Katherine, an avid birdwatcher, said she wanted to be cremated and have her remains scattered in the Montrose Beach area of Chicago, which has a bird sanctuary.
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