Nicolas Toledo, 76, doesn’t want to attend the Highland Park parade on July 4, but his disabilities require him to be with someone full-time. And the family wouldn’t skip the parade – even going so far as to reserve seats for a selection of viewing locations the night before.
Mr. Toledo was sitting in his wheelchair along the parade route, between his son and a grandson, when the bullets began to fly. “We were all shocked,” said Xochil Toledo, his granddaughter. “We think it’s part of the parade.”
Then she said, “We realized that our grandfather had been beaten. We saw blood and everything splattered on us.”
Toledo suffered three gunshot wounds, killing him. His son and Toledo’s boyfriend were also shot, but their injuries were not life-threatening, the family said.
One of the six people killed at Monday’s parade was a Mexican citizen, by Roberto Velasco Alvarez, head of the North American unit of the Mexican Foreign Ministry. It was not immediately clear if the person was Mr. Toledo. His family says he has dual citizenship and emigrated between the United States and Mexico during his lifetime.
He moved back to Highland Park a few months ago from Mexico at the urging of family members. He was hit by a car while walking in Highland Park a few years ago while living with his family, and had a series of medical problems as a result of that accident.
“We brought him here to give him a better life,” Ms. Toledo said. “His sons wanted to take care of him and have more in his life, and then this tragedy happened.”
