Community Leader and a 9–Year–Old Killed by Chicago Gun Violence This Weekend

By David Boddiger  |  July 16, 2017 | 8:01pm
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Ten people were killed and at least 30 others injured by gun violence in Chicago this weekend. Among the fatalities are an anti–violence community leader and a 9–year–old boy.

Gustavo García, 9, was riding in an SUV on Chicago’s South Side Friday night when he was struck and killed by gunfire, Reuters reported. A 31–year–old man was injured in the attack.

García is the fourth child under 12 to be killed by gunfire in Chicago this year, and the 14th to be shot, according to the Chicago Tribune. Last month, two girls, ages 7 and 12, were hit by bullets from a passing car as they participated in a track event at an elementary school playground.

On Saturday afternoon, South Side community leader William “Willie” Cooper, 58, was killed by dozens of rounds fired from an AR–15 during a drive–by shooting. Cooper was walking near Lilydale Outreach Workers for a Better Community, a nonprofit center that helps local teenagers find jobs, ABC 7 reported. It is unclear why Cooper was targeted.

His relatives, neighbors, and people he’s helped over the years were stunned by the senseless killing.

“I met him when I was a little boy, and all through time there’s so many stories of him doing good in the community, him paying for funerals for other people, people to go to school—whatever anybody needed,” fellow anti–violence activist Donovan Price told ABC 7.

Friend Bamani Obadele said Cooper should be named “Mayor of 95th Street.”

Cooper leaves behind a wife and three children.

Of the weekend’s dozens of victims, 30 were shot in a span of just 18 hours. As of a week ago, about 2,000 people had been shot in Chicago so far this year, an appalling number that is still fewer than last year’s total during the same period. Of this year’s shootings, 353 were homicides, the Chicago Police Department reported.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, 101 people were shot and 15 were killed.

Police have made no arrests so far in García’s and Cooper’s killings.

 
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