Aidan McCarthy, the 2 1/2-year-old boy orphaned by the mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade on Monday, survived because his father shielded him with his body, according to his grandfather.
Kevin McCarthy, 37, died protecting his son, said Michael Levberg, whose 35-year-old daughter Irina – McCarthy’s wife and Aidan’s mother – was also among the seven killed as they watched the parade.
“He was holding Aidan under his body when he was shot,” the father-in-law said.
When he picked up his grandson at the Highland Park police station, Levberg said Aidan told him, “Mommy and Daddy are coming soon.”
Aidan McCarthy, 2 1⁄2 years old, lost both parents in the mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade. His grandfather said his father, Kevin McCarthy, used his body to shield the child from the shooting.
Also injured was Aidan’s paternal grandmother, Margot McCarthy, who helped with childcare and had gone with her son and daughter-in-law to the parade.
“She was holding Aiden when the shooting started,” said her cousin Montgomery Kersten, and she was hit in the neck and ear and treated for her injuries.
Her son was struck by a bullet in the femoral artery, fatally wounded, Kersten said.
“By the time she fell, Aidan was under his father,” Kersten said. “I’m sure God took care of him. God save Aidan and Margo.
“Just a few millimeters to the right” and Aidan’s grandmother would have suffered a brain injury, he said.
Irina McCarthy, an only child, “was the love of my life,” her father said. “She was everything.”
Born in Russia, she settled in the Chicago area with her immigrant father and mother, Nina Levberg. She worked as a waitress and attended Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire and De Paul University before finding work in digital marketing in the pharmaceutical industry, her father said.
He said she met her husband, Kevin, who was working on a gene therapy startup, through her job in pharmaceuticals.
After the shooting, Aidan was “walking down the street,” his grandfather said. Pictures of the little boy alone began to circulate.
“A neighbor came by, she showed me the picture, it was Aiden,” Levberg said. “I took it to the police station.”
A GoFundMe page set up for the little boy said: ‘Aiden will be cared for by his loving family and he will have a long road to healing, finding stability and ultimately navigating life as an orphan. He is surrounded by a community of friends and extended family who will embrace him with love and every means available to ensure he has everything he needs as he grows.
The online fundraiser said it aimed to help “support him and his carers, who will be tasked with raising, looking after and supporting Aidan as he and his support system embark in this unexpected journey’.
The McCarthys were looking forward to the parade and went to see it with Aidan, Levberg said.
“They were crazy about their child,” he said, his voice breaking. “They planned two.”
Kevin McCarthy is also survived by his father, Michael, and sister, Katie, Kersten said.
“We’re going to join forces to support Aidan here,” Kersten said, “and do the best we can to help our nation try to prevent these events from happening in the future.”
As of early Tuesday evening, the bodies of the couple had not yet been handed over to their families.
“We don’t know what to do,” Levberg said.
Jacqueline Sundheim, 63, of Highland Park, a preschool teacher at the synagogue, was also among those killed Monday.
In a letter sent to members of her synagogue, Israeli Rabbi Wendy Geffen of the North Bank Congregation said Sundheim had attended the synagogue all her life and had worked there for decades.
“Jackie’s work, kindness, and warmth touched us all, from her teaching at Gates of Learning Preschool to guiding countless among us through life’s moments of joy and sorrow, all with tireless dedication,” Geffen wrote.
Three of the other four who died in the parade massacre were identified Tuesday by Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek as:
Nicholas Toledo was one of seven killed in Monday’s shooting in Highland Park.
The name of the seventh person who died has not been released.
Contribution: Elvia Malagon, Manny Ramos
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