Representatives of Magen David Adom (Israel’s equivalent of Red Cross) are in Chicago teaching faith communities how to minimize casualties and save lives in the first seven minutes of a terror attack.

MDA was invited following the July 4 shooting attack in Highland Park where seven people were killed and 48 injured.

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Two-year-old Aiden McCarthy will be raised by his grandparents.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

A GoFundMe campaign organized to help support an orphaned Jewish toddler who parents were both killed in the mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, on Monday has raised nearly $3 million.

Irina McCarthy, 35 — a Jewish immigrant from Russia who moved to the Chicago area with her parents — and Kevin McCarthy, 37, were both killed while attending the parade with their 2-year-old son Aiden McCarthy. Kevin was struck by a bullet while shielding his son with his body, according to Irina’s father, Michael Levberg. Also wounded in the shooting was Aiden’s paternal grandmother Margo McCarthy, who had attended the parade with her son and daughter-in-law.

After the shooting, Aiden was found “walking in the street” alone, his grandfather told the Chicago Sun Times. Photos began circulating of the toddler online and after a neighbor showed Levberg the picture, he picked up his grandson at the police station. “When I picked him up, he said, ‘Are Mommy and Daddy coming soon?’” Levberg said. “He doesn’t understand.”

The GoFundMe page set up for young boy said, “Aiden will be cared for by his loving family and he will have a long road ahead to heal, find stability, and ultimately navigate life as an orphan. He is surrounded by a community of friends and extended family that will embrace him with love, and any means available to ensure he has everything he needs as he grows.”

The fundraiser aims to help “support him and the caregivers who will be tasked with raising, caring for, and supporting Aiden as he and his support system embark on this unexpected journey.”

Levberg told the Chicago Sun Times that Irina, his only child, “was the love of my life” and that the couple was “crazy about their child.”

Kevin McCarthy is also survived by his father Michael and sister Katie. A family member said, “We’re going to join forces to support Aiden here and to do the best we can to help our nation try and prevent these events from happening in the future.”

Highland Park native Robert E. Crimo III, 21, admitted during his first court appearance on Wednesday to opening fire on the Independence Day parade, killing seven people and injuring dozens of others. He faces seven counts of first-degree murder.

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“One phone call saved numerous lives on the Fourth of July.”

By Associated Press

Police in Richmond, Virginia, said Wednesday that they thwarted a planned July 4 mass shooting after receiving a tip that led to the arrest of two men and the seizure of multiple guns — an announcement that came just two days after a deadly mass shooting on the holiday in a Chicago suburb.

A “hero citizen” overheard a conversation indicating there was an attack being planned on an Independence Day celebration in the capital city and called police to report it, Police Chief Gerald Smith said at a news conference. The caller said the attack was planned for the Dogwood Dell Amphitheater, where an annual fireworks show is held, Smith said.

“One phone call saved numerous lives on the Fourth of July,” Smith said.

Police initiated an investigation along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, which led to the arrests of two men on charges of being non-U.S. citizens in possession of a firearm, Smith said. He said additional charges are possible.

Julio Alvarado-Dubon, 52, was arrested on July 1, the same day police received the tip, Smith said. He said police put a second suspect, Rolman Alberto Balacarcel, 38, under surveillance beginning that day, but did not initially have probable cause to arrest him. He was arrested Tuesday in Albemarle County, near Charlottesville, and was being held in a local jail.

Police spokesperson Tracy Walker said both men are from Guatemala. Initial documents filed in General District Court in Richmond say both Alvarado-Dubon and Balacarcel are not in the U.S. legally. The documents, which say Alvarado-Dubon has an expired visa, did not include any details about the alleged plot.

Court documents note bond was set at $15,000 for Alvarado-Dubon on Wednesday, but it was unclear if he had been released. The documents say he has lived in the Richmond area for three years and works full time in the construction industry. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled in Richmond on Aug. 2. Alvarado-Dubon’s attorney, Jose Aponte, declined to comment Wednesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Balacarcel had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Smith said the two men lived together at a Richmond house, where officers seized two assault rifles, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition that were in plain view. He said police have not determined a motive for the planned attack.

“l want to thank and applaud the hero in Virginia that stopped a potential massacre by alerting our brave Richmond Police Department Officers that work tirelessly every day to protect our communities,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a tweet. “It’s a great reminder that if you see something, say something to your local PD.”

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, who joined the news conference along with members of the city council, decried what he called an epidemic of gun violence across the country.

“Whether you’re at home in your cul-de-sac, or in your neighborhood, or in a park, or at a parade, out dining — you have to keep your head on a swivel,” Stoney said. “And that’s not the country that I know I desire to live in … but those are the facts of the matter at this moment.”

Smith said the apparent plot was unconnected to another shooting that wounded six people in Richmond in the early morning hours of July 4.

The same day, a gunman opened fire from a rooftop during a Fourth of July parade in the affluent Chicago suburb of Highland Park, killing seven people and injuring more than three dozen.

Robert E. Crimo III was charged with seven counts of murder Tuesday. The shooting sent hundreds of people fleeing in fear and set off an hourslong manhunt. Authorities have not yet identified a motive in that shooting.

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Gofundme campaign brings in nearly $2 million for two-year-old Aiden McCarthy, who will be raised by his grandparents.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Jewish toddler was saved in the Highland Park Fourth of July parade shooting Monday by his father, who died shielding him with his body.

Kevin and Irina were at an Independence Day parade in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Highland Park with their two-year-old son Aiden when a gunman opened fire on the crowd.

Both parents, in their thirties, were among the seven killed. Some 50 others were injured either by gunshots or while fleeing. As of Wednesday morning, nine people were still hospitalized.

Police arrested 21-year-old Robert Crimo III, who faces seven charges of first degree murder.

Lauren Silva, who had come to the area to enjoy a breakfast out with her boyfriend and his son, described to the Daily Beast how she found Aiden after hearing the gun shots.

“My boyfriend handed me this little boy and said he was underneath this father who was shot in the leg,” Silva said. “They were trying to stop the bleeding so I brought the boy downstairs into the garage.”

“He kept asking if mom and dad are going to come back soon,” she said of the diapered two-and-a-half year old, who she noted was wearing only one shoe and had on a sock covered in blood.

She cleaned the toddler’s cuts with a first-aid kit she had in the car, while trying to calm him down and telling him that “his dad was going to come back,” the paper said.

Silva said she gave the boy to someone who said he’d be taken to a hospital. Meanwhile, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, Aiden’s maternal grandfather Michael Levberg said that Aiden had been seen “walking in the street.”

Pictures were taken of the little lost boy and posted on a neighborhood watch website, where Adrienne Rosenblatt, 71, saw it after escaping from the parade herself. She knew the whole family, and went to the Levbergs’ home to show them the photo and tell the grandparents where they could find their grandson.

“A neighbor passed by, she showed me the picture, it was Aiden,” Levberg said. “I picked him up at the [Highland Park] police station.”

He also confirmed his son-in-law’s heroism, saying, “He had Aiden under his body when he was shot.”

“They were crazy about their child,” he said. “They were planning two.”

Michael and his wife, Nina, had emigrated to Chicago from Russia with their only daughter, Irina, when she was a schoolchild.

According to a GoFundMe page that friends immediately set up, the Levbergs will now raise the little boy.

“Aiden will be cared for by his loving grandparents, Misha and Nina Levberg, and he will have a long road ahead to heal, find stability and ultimately navigate life as an orphan,” the page said in part. “He is surrounded by a community of friends and extended family that will embrace him with love and any means available to ensure he has everything he needs as he grows.”

By Wednesday morning, over $1.8 million had been raised, with donations coming from almost 40,000 people.

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