‘Windy City Is Becoming Bloody City’: Gun Violence Soars In Chicago, Targets Younger Victims
At least 336 people have been killed in Chicago through July 2 of this year, a homicide rate that is on track to hit the 2016 record of 778 deaths and comes at time when the nation debates policing. Nine children under 18 have been killed since June 20. News on spiking gun violence is also from Atlanta.
The New York Times:
Chicago Gun Violence Spikes And Increasingly Finds The Youngest Victims
As Yasmin Miller drove home from a laundromat in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood last weekend, a gunman in another car peppered her red Hyundai sedan with bullets, grazing her head and striking her son, Sincere Gaston, in the chest. Sincere died in his car seat. He was 20 months old. On June 20, a man fired gunshots through the back of a dark blue SUV, wounding the 27-year-old man driving and hitting his stepson, Mekhi James, in the back, killing him. Mekhi was three. (MacFarquhar and Chiarito, 7/5)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Gun Violence Spikes In Atlanta Amid Debate Over Police Brutality
Ninety-three people were shot in Atlanta during the four-week period of May 31 to June 27, up drastically from 46 in the same period last year, the latest complete data available. And fourteen people died of homicide in that span, compared to six during the same time frame in 2019. Those shot have included a 10-year-old boy who survived, an 18-year-old who may have been selling water on the street in Midtown when he was killed, and an 80-year-old man who died as the unintended target of a drive-by in his home. The numbers are still climbing. (Sharpe, 7/5)
