Fatal Fourth of July Weekend

Amidst a global pandemic and a nation full of political tensions, this year’s 4th of July weekend proved to be another marker of civil unrest.

In Chicago, gun violence left at least 17 people killed, with another 63 injured. Two of these deaths are children, continuing a string of children fatally shot in recent weeks.

The youngest person killed over the weekend was 7 year-old Natalia Wallace. She was shot in the head at approximately 7 pm on Saturday, while outside attending a festive family gathering.

Natalia’s family recalls the tragedy that afternoon, as she was “just being outside and doing what every other kid would do […] for your life to be cut down short like that…it takes a toll on all of us,” said Nathan Wallace, Natalia’s father. “I’m hurt, I’m angry, I’m sad, disappointed. It’s something that no parent wants to do. Who wants to bury your child? It should be the other way around.”

Natalia’s father and aunt agreed the area needs more police, not less, as a result of violence erupting since George Floyd’s death on May 25.

Reverend James Stevenson, who grew up in Natalia’s community, commented that the area was experiencing “another dimension of the pandemic.” Past simply the health hazard it poses, COVID-19 has lead to early inmate releases, an economic crash, and closure of almost all schools nationwide.

Rev. Stevenson commented that his once-united community has been “drastically changed” by “the drug infestation. The unemployment. And with the lack of jobs and things of that nature, crime is on the rise.”

Unfortunately, Natalia was not the only child tragically killed in a shooting this holiday weekend: Fox News reports that at least 6 children died as a result of shootings.

Just before midnight on Saturday, in another part of the city, four males open fired on a large gathering in the street. Two men died at the scene, and two more, including a 14 year-old boy, died in the hospital.

Following the death, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted more bromides, “We must continue to invest in our street outreach work, in police-community relations, and in healing those who have been harmed by violence so that we can stop the cycle of retaliation.” “As a city, we must wrap our arms around our youth so they understand there’s a future for them that isn’t wrapped up in gun violence.”  How, one might ask Mayor Lightfoot, does a city which for years has demonized its police, protect its children from criminals?

In Hoover, Alabama, 8 year-old Royta Giles Jr. was shot in the head at the Riverchase Galleria Mall, as a result of a gun fight at the mall’s nearby food court.

In Atlanta, 8 year-old Secoriea Turner was hit near a Wendy’s restaurant, while in the car with her mother and another adult. The driver at the time tried to drive through illegally placed barricades to get to a parking lot in the area. Armed individuals blocking the entrance opened fire on the vehicle, ultimately shooting and killing Secoriea inside.

The weekend’s shootings also killed 11-year old Davon McNeal in Washington D.C., who was just getting out of the car to grab his phone charger on the way to a community cookout. As he emerged from the vehicle, shots rang out from five adult men in the area.

Across the country, a 6 year-old in San Francisco suffered a gunshot wound later Saturday in the Bayview neighborhood, and died later that day in the hospital.  Black Lives Matter paints police as an enemy, but the deaths of innocent children only re-enforce the need for strong law enforcement to keep streets safe.