Ross Cosmetics was closed for Independence Day on July 4, 2022.
But, as any business owner knows, being closed to the public doesn’t mean there still isn’t work to be done. So Earl Edelcup, who owned the Highland Park variety store with his wife, Arden, thought he’d go in to the small, windowless office tucked behind a gray curtain in the back of the store and get some paperwork done.
About the same time that Edelcup was driving from his home in Highwood, authorities say Bobby Crimo, 22, later told them he was taking up his position on the roof of one-story Ross Cosmetics.
News accounts described what Crimo went up as a fire-escape ladder. But it really is a sturdy, steel-and-concrete stairway to the second-floor apartments around the back of the buildings at Second Street and Central Avenue. The police say he was carrying a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle, one of five guns he owned, and three 30-round magazine clips.
The Highland Park 4th of July parade began at 10 a.m., half an hour after the children’s and pet parade. The police say Crimo started shooting at parade goers from above Ross Cosmetics at 10:14 a.m., firing 83 shots in quick bursts, leaving five dead, two dying and dozens wounded.
Just after the shooting stopped and the man who fired on the crowd descended the stairs, Earl Edelcup showed up.
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| Earl Edelcup |
He had no idea anything unusual had happened until he stood at the front door and began to insert his key.
“What are you doing?” someone, running past him, shouted.
“I’m just going in to work,” Edelcup replied, puzzled.
The person kept running.
That gave him pause. Edelcup turned, looked around and saw a police officer who asked him if he owned this business. Earl said he did.
“Is this safe?” Edelcup asked. “Should I be here?”
But the cop was gone.
Edelcup didn’t go in. He got back in his car and called his wife.
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You hit this one out of the park, Neil! This was a very sensitive, heartfelt way to commemorate a horrific event, and to demonstrate the community's resilience. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhat a tremendous column you wrote, and what a way for me to reconnect with your work after an absence of several years. I'm so glad to be back.
ReplyDeleteWow, way to make me cry on a rainy Sunday morning.
ReplyDeleteDelighted with the sentiment in the column today about “small town” Highland Park and feel it needs to be commemorated in a country music song like John Denver’s “Country Roads,” which when it was played last night during the Cubs game, I mentally noted that 99.9999% of those singing along had absolutely no connection with West Virginia and couldn’t spot it on a map and would probably have as much trouble with country mamas as with country roads. The homeyness and togetherness expressed in the column should be cherished, sustained and perpetuated by someone like Pete Seeger, John Denver or Hank Williams. Alas all dead and gone.
ReplyDeleteJohn
And I thought I had it tough with a flooded basement....
ReplyDeleteMy father was born in Highland Park in the early 1920s.
ReplyDeleteMy cousins grew up there in the 1950s.
Much different town than it is today. Placid, but not quite as upscale.
A beautiful and heartfelt way to mark the anniversary of this tragic day. Thank you, Neil.
ReplyDeleteVery moving...
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