There have already been at least 67 people shot in Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend. Within four hours, from 11 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday, 36 people were shot. There were at least 13 killed during the holiday weekend, including a 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy.
Nine of the weekend's shooting victims were minors, a worrying trend of children being shot and killed in Chicago. A 7-year-old girl was killed over the holiday weekend.
Natalie Wallace was playing on a sidewalk outside of her grandmother's home around 7 p.m. on Saturday in the city's Austin neighborhood when three men got out of a car and sprayed more than 20 rounds in the direction of a family's Fourth of July party, which had children present. The 7-year-old was shot in the forehead and pronounced dead at the Stroger Hospital of Cook County.
"Tonight, a 7-year-old girl in Austin joined a list of teenagers and children whose hopes and dreams were ended by the barrel of a gun," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said on Twitter. "We cannot grow numb to this. We are making progress in slowing shootings, but we have to do better, every single one of us."
A 14-year-old boy was shot and killed in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. The attack, which happened at a large gathering, killed four people, and wounded four others, including an 11-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy.
This is the third week in a row where a young child died from gun violence in Chicago. In the two weeks leading up to the Fourth of July weekend, seven children under the age of 18 were killed in Chicago.
A 20-month-old toddler, Sincere Gaston, was killed last weekend after being hit with a stray bullet while riding in a car with his mom. "I am lifeless," said Yasmine Miller, the boy's mother. "That was my world. They came and took a piece of us. Broke us. He stole my baby from me."
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