Chicago girl jumping rope shot dead
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Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer
An 8-year-old girl, in Chicago, who was jumping rope with a playmate was shot to death by unknown gunmen who opened fire from their bicycles, authorities said. The other girl, who is 7, was grazed in the head by a bullet and is listed in fair condition at a local hospital, police said. Published reports identified the injured girl as the victim’s cousin.
The incident happened Tuesday shortly before 8pm in the south side of the city, investigators said. Officer Robert Perez, a spokesman for the Chicago Police, told CNN two African-American men riding on bikes approached the girls who were jumping rope on the porch of a home.
“We don’t know who or what the target was,” Perez told CNN, “that hasn’t been determined.” Police said they did not know if the shooting was gang related. Detectives “are looking at all possible leads and they do not have anyone arrested for the incident and they are still interviewing witnesses,” Perez said.
The girl who was killed was in the 3rd grade at Kohn Elementary School, said Chicago schools spokeswoman Monique Bond.
The shooting comes just two days after the Chicago Police announced that murders were down 1.5% in July after a 4-month increase.
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Filed under: Crime & Punishment • Gabe Falcon |
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Many here call for more gun control. Chicago has the toughest gun control laws in the nation. Yet these two thugs were packing. Do you think that criminals care about gun control laws?
@Erica – Criminals will *ALWAYS* be able to get guns – Gun laws only work for people that follow the law.
Guns huh? A gun walked up and shot this little girl? ...or was it a person that was not raised to respect anything or anyone that intended to kill and happened to use a gun. Bad people are bad people no matter how you look at. Gangs, a horrible education system, underfunded and undersupported police departments, and a society where it's always "somebody else's fault" are the problem here. Maybe we should ask Palin what to do? That would fix it.
two African-American men. Now there's something different. What a surprise!
@ Erica: No disrespect , but do you ACTUALLY believe these gunmen bought the guns legally!?! If you do, I have some oceanfront property in Kansas to sell you.
My condolences to the girl and her family and friends, and I hope the other little girl recovers from her injuries.
The assailants need to be hung by their b a l l s!
Do the people screaming for gun control really think the murderers used a legally purchased firearms in this tragedy? I don't know how much more gun control you can get in Chicago seeing how you cannot buy a gun within the city limits and functional weapons can only legally be possessed inside of one's dwellings. Until recently guns were under a full ban and even that didn't seem to stop these horrible events from occurring.
Very sad. I hope this brings up a national gun control debate. People like to argue that crime goes down when guns are freely accessible. How would that have helped in this case?
Well, at least Bill has some common sense. The rest of you sound like typical CNN viewers.
What if the girl was run over by a car? Do we then ban cars? At that time and place, two men had intent to murder children – for whatever sick, twisted reason. The weapon could have been a gun, knife, baseball bat, tire iron...
Banning guns merely punishes those who lawfully own guns. You think those two mudering thugs applied for permits then walked into Sears and Robucks and purchased a 9mm over the counter, then registered the weapon with the state? You think if we ban guns, that criminals will not find a way to ascertain some other means to kill, maim, murder? A lead pipe, a nail gun, a broken bottle?
Attack the problem, not the symptom.
How sad. My heart goes out to the victim's family.
The problem with gun control is the criminals will always have guns.
I was robbed at gunpoint going to work in Washington, D.C. - and it's against the law to own a gun there, except under special circumstances. I was robbed by two gang members. Do you think they care about gun laws? The real problem is the drug culture.
Yes getting guns for law abiding citizens should be the most difficult thing on the planet to do.
It will give criminals like these thugs plenty of victims to prey on.
I hope you get everything you ask for Erica and the
n live for forever
I am 65 years old. My mother used to tell me that she and my father
used to take moonlight walks in Humboldt Park in the 1930's.
They never had a problem. In the 1950's , we kept the back door open
for the milkman who would get into the kitchen about 5:30am and
stock up our milk, butter, and eggs.
News stories like this amaze and depress me.
I
There's no easy answer to this kind of problem. A good start would be for the people that live in these communities to have police get tougher with these criminals and have the politicians shot up and not scream racisism when these criminals get roughed up by police.
Thank god Chicago will soon be getting rid of all it's guns. I always knew something like this would happen if they didn't crack down on gun ownership.
Wait...
What a sad commentary about people that they have NO regard for anyone other then themselves and don't care who they shoot from infants to adults, the gang bangers have no conscience or regard for human life. They are just out for themselves and have the attitude of "kill or be killed."
What a tragedy.
African Americans need to get a grip on their gang culture.
Nah ! I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and can assure you that most of these shootings are done by bank presidents, priests and civic leaders. After all, with the gun laws in Chicago, who else could get their hands on guns ??? Surely not the common and protectedc punk !
You can have all the gun control you want, the criminals will still have guns and the "normal" people will not.
This deplorable murder of an innocent child is possibly a right of passage for some would be gang members. They know they will be out of jail in 5 or 6 years and be higher up in the gang as they commited a murder, doesn't matter who they kill. They have no fear of the system and that's where it all goes wrong, jail should be a bad place for bad people, not a summer camp. They go to jail to be educated by the others into being a smarter criminal.
@Erica: getting guns IS extremely difficult, for law-abiding citizens that is. Sadly, it seems to be easy for the bad guys to get them, no matter what restrictions the law puts on gun purchases.
@Matt: this sort of thing doesn't happen in Switzerland, either, where most citizens (males, anyway) are actually required to retain the gun issued to them when they do military service.
I don't know the solution, but stricter gun laws don't seem to make much difference.
You People who believe guns need to be removed are pretty damn foolish.....
Do you actually think a criminal is going to care that guns are illegal? Not at all.. The criminals will have guns either way.. whether illegal or legal.. The problem is the criminals not the guns. Take away the guns and the criminals will just find another way to do it. Plain and Simple..
Removing guns will only embolden criminals more and make is very hard for decent citizens to defend themselves..
Criminals will get guns no matter what we do, they are criminals!!! You will never get the guns off the street. They don't walk into a store and buy them they steal them. We need to kill all the bastards on death row as soon aspossible, and kill them as soon as they get a death sentence. We need to stop wasting money on trying to help these people, and spend the money on a $.20 bullet and kill them all.
I love how people cry gun control when this happens. Guns don't walk around killing people, people kill people. Do you honestly think that gun control is the answer. I seriously doubt that the guns used in the case were purchased at a gun shop most likely by a gun smuggler, which by the way these guns will still be here just the fact that law abiding citizens will not be able to buy them. Let’s say all guns were off the market, I bet these two individuals would have used a bow and arrow, knife, gun purchased illegally, your dads car, etc to do this.
The problem is the people that live in these neighborhoods. Obviously the shooting was gang related,not random, and someone in the poor little girls family was also on the wrong end of the law. Live by the sword die by the sword, I'm sure no one at the address cooperated withe the police.
I've lived in Chicago all my life (and am getting the heck out next year) – this has been going on for 50+ years here. It's nothing new – just publicized now.
It's always in the black neighborhoods. Black on black violence. And this is where Obama is from. Go figure, right? Until the "good" blacks start speaking out and HELPING the police (who they consider to be the enemy because of their racism toward "da white man"), this will continue.
It saddens me that somebody has morals that warped to take the life of an innocent child. I have a daughter. I worry about the same situations. I can imagine what her parents are going through but it's probably only a fraction of what they actually are going through.
The fact is, the only way to stop gun crimes is to stop making guns. Period. If you make them, they will come. Criminals don't care if they are breaking the law. Laws only mitigate a portion of crime for the individuals with at least a partial concience. There will always be a demand for guns by criminals.
Glock (Austria), Sig (Germany/Switzerland), Steyr (Austria), Beretta (Italy), FNH (Belgium) those sound like European firearms manufacturers to me. Of course there are as many US/Brazil/other based companies who provide them but at the very least no European should have permission to comment on this article or articles like it and tout gun control! Europeans could have some balls to assist the world towards peace by banning their export to countries like the U.S. because obviously certain counties will not restrict their import enough. Europeans could take the lead here but instead all I hear is whining.
What the world is coming to...Criminals have too many rights.
Catch them and and throw away the keys. Better yet send them to Irag or afghanistan and see if they still want to play with guns
The evil will always get guns – this is so wrong. How is some little innocent girl killed in cold blood like this. I hope people will talk and the animals are caught and turn over their worthless lives.
Re the comment mentioning Ireland as an example of a place this stuff never happens. Given Northern Ireland's not so distant past, it is probably not the best example you could have used. (Coming from a third generation Irish American) And I would be interested in seeing the per capita murder rates. These days we hear about EVERY incident, wherever it happens in the World. Ireland has a population of about 4.5 million.....US something like 350 million. 75 times the number of people equals 75 times the number of incidents like this.
First, all thoughts and prayers to the poor family of the girl. Second, though I think strict standards for obtaining a gun would be fantastic, remember China this past year, dozens of kids knifed to death. Point being, "evil" deeds or whatever you will call them happen with or without guns.
Where is Al Sharpton? Oh, that's right... no white people involved. This is what degenerate culture creates. To bad black people in America have no leaders worth a damn to take any sort of stand against thug culture.
In Chicago? How can that be? I thought guns were banned in Chicago.
And idiot right wingers think everyone has the right to bear arms. That was true during the Revolutionary War...not now.
I am waiting for the pro-gun people to point out that this probably would not have happened had the 7 year old had a gun of her own. Funny thing with this argument is all the "bad guys" with guns knows that it is legal to carry guns yet they still shoot, rob and kill at will...does everybody having a gun stop crime? No, in theory all it would allow is for the victim to avenge the crime...
Maybe instead of outlawing guns, we should outlaw Black people. They seem to kill more people then guns do.
To my point, all guns aren't bad and neither are all Black People.
"Erica August 11th, 2010 4:55 pm ET –And people still think we shouldn't make getting a gun as difficult as possible????"
Never fails on tragic stories like this that within the first 10 comments, some flawed-thinking anti gun person uses it to make a political statement. I agree with you half way though.......we should make it as hard as possible for CRIMINALS to get guns. If these kids were on bicycles, it is likely that they are minors. If so, they were committing a crime just having the gun, even in states that allow handgun ownership. It's illegal for any civilian to have a handgun in Chicago.....lot of good that did. So just enforce the laws we have and this never happens. How would taking away the Beretta that I own and carry legally have prevented this? In fact, if I were there carrying my gun, I might have prevented them from shooting the second girl. I'm no Dirty Harry, so I probably would just hide behind a car,But at the very least, I would have been able to protect myself and my two kids who are with me much of the time.
How would taking away my right stopped this tragedy? Is there any doubt that without guns, the deviants who did this would have used knives, bats or whatever at hand?
Bill
Thank you. You are 100% correct. You want to stop gun crime. Its not the guns its the people. Pass laws that make you not want to comit crime witha gun.
Any crime with a gun, regardles if you fire it or not, LIFE in prision with NO PAROLE.
Make the punishment supper serve, you'll see gun violence STOP!
Do you people think people you post? Do you really think the guns criminals are buying are legal? All stricter gun laws are going to do is make it more difficult for good people to defend themselves from the murderers that will have weapons regardless.
@ Augsbee. That was an idiotic comment! I am a black man and I think they should take em out and shoot em like they shot that little girl!
Guns are not the problem, criminals who the guns are. Once we start consistently destroying criminals who use guns to commit crimes, the word will get out in no time!
Are you kidding me? They killed a girl playing jump rope? The gunmen need to be stoned to death by the victim's parents.
The problem with gun control is, at this point in America, you simply disarm law abiding citizens. If you own a gun legally, it is registered in your name, with a serial number to boot. I highly doubt these murderers were card-carrying NRA members using a legally registered firearm. To compare the United States with Ireland on gun control issues is ignorant at best as one is an island while we share a over 6,000 miles of border with countries through which firearms are moved regularly.
Odds are that the parents of the shooters are irresponsible wastes of space and oxygen who in all probability are divorced, substance-abusing ex-cons with no active or positive involvement in their little gang-banging murderer's upbringing. Fundamental family values and discipline matter. They should be locked up along with the shooters.
It's mind-boggling to me how people don't see the connection between the easy availability of guns and the random violence that plagues American cities. I really don't have anything against legal, responsible gun ownership, but the fact is simply that having guns so readily available makes them easy to get for criminals. Simple as that.
The argument "if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns" does hold some water, though. I don't know how to put that genie back into the bottle but until we figure out a way, we will continue to see more sad stories like this one.
Socially, I'm as liberal as they come, and I think GUNS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM.
The problem–or rather the two largest contributors to the problem, are our culture of fear and our privately run, for-profit prison system.
You and I both know there's no point in getting into the reasoning and specifics behind this here, but do a little research and I promise you'll see. Just maybe a gun culture comes in at #3, but #1 and #2 are as I stated above.
Hey Chicago, how are those strict gun control laws working out? Does the Chicago Mayor and his rubber stamp City Council really think that any law will prevent these animals from obtaining a weapon?
Many posters advocate stricter gun laws, Chicago has some of the most repressive gun control laws in the nation and they don't work! What use are strict laws if the bleeding heart judicial system gives the criminals a slap on the wrist and says "don't do it again"?
So the boys that shot them weren't even old enough to be driving a car it sounds like so they were on their bicycles?
All I can think about is the innocence of a little girl jumping rope and this disgusts me. When are we going to end this cycle of poverty and realize taking of one another prevents violence like this?
You freaking anti gun people need to wake up! Legal gun owners don't commit crimes like this, the black market back alley buyers do these crimes. Besides if you don't sell another gun legally after today guns can easily last 100 years, creating a huge black market if guns are outlawed. Read your history book, when the US government outlawed booze look how well they did stopping people from consuming it!
My question is when are you liberals going to outlaw cars? I mean people do drive drunk and outlawing cars would stop the problem.
"Erica August 11th, 2010 4:55 pm ET
And people still think we shouldn't make getting a gun as difficult as possible????"
You understand chances are greater then not they didn't get those guns the correct way, you realize that right?
I found it. Read: Isaiah 65 it's talking about the new heaven and the new earth. Isaiah 65:20 says: "Never again will there be an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not live out his years. Isaiah 65:23 says: "They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be my people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. Talking about living in heaven with God. God is real. Jesus is real. Jesus is God. St. John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Word is capitalized because it is a Pronoun (person, place or thing.) In this case a "Person." Word translates to Logos which translates to Messiah, Jesus the Christ. Jesus is God.
My heart goes to the families and it is my prayer for them to be comforted by the Scriptures. The Word of the Living God. Your child is safe now. Though no longer in your care, Rest assured she is now safe from all harm and suffers none.
"Police said they did not know if the shooting was gang related."
Shot while jumping rope could be deemed gang related?
An eye for an eye folks. Catch them, and have the jump rope while being shot at. One has to die and the rest can be grazed, let fate decide.
Savages.