Cassie Goldstein shared her harrowing experience at the Fourth of July massacre in Highland Park, Ill. during which her mother Katie Goldstein, and six others were killed.
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."
When the shooting stopped, she rushed over to her mom, but she had already passed away.
"She was just a good mother and I got 22 years with her," Cassie said. "I got to have 22 years with the best mom in the world."
In addition to Cassie, Katie is survived by teenage daughter Alana and husband Craig Goldstein. He told Holt, "I have been talking to people on the phone today and I can't believe how many best friends Katie has, how many people said, 'She was my best friend.'"
Five of the six other victims have been identified: Irina McCarthy, 35; Kevin McCarthy, 37; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; and Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78.
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