Cassie Goldstein remembers her mom Katherine “Katie” Goldstein enjoying the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill. Only one of them made it out alive.
Katie, 64, was one of seven people killed after Robert Crimo III, 22, fired shot after shot into the crowd at the holiday event near Chicago. More than three dozen people were wounded.
Before the massacre began, Katie was happily waving to the parade participants. Cassie told NBC News‘ Lester Holt, “Every float that went by, she waved to them.”
When the gunman started firing, Cassie, 22, initially thought the sound was firecrackers across the street. “Then I looked up and I saw the shooter shooting down at the kids,” she recalled. “I told her that it was a shooter and that she had to run. So I started running with her and we were next to each other.”
Cassie continued, “He shot her in the chest and she fell down, and I knew she was dead, so I just told her that I loved her, but I couldn’t stop. He was still shooting everyone next to me.”
