North Lawndale College Prep mourns Rishawn Hendricks, student killed in Chicago park shooting
'I have been broken for the last 48 hours.. Rishawn was the kid who you always felt like would be safe anywhere': Terrence Redmond
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Rishawn Hendricks, 16, was a star athlete and a scholar at North Lawndale College Prep's Collins Campus.
His life was abruptly taken on Saturday night when he was shot at a park just a few blocks away.
Rishawn's basketball coach told ABC7 there are no words to describe the grief this school is facing.
"I have been broken for the last 48 hours," said Terrence Redmond, a coach and counselor at North Lawndale College Prep. "Rishawn was the kid who you always felt like would be safe anywhere just because he was not involved in anything. He was so active in school all the time."
Three-sport athlete and hardworking junior was shot in the 1200 block of South Fairfield just before 8:30 p.m., police said. Two people got out of a dark colored sedan and opened fire.
Neighbors said he was shot in this park.
Officials said Hendricks was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he died.
A 13-year-old girl was also hit in the shooting and is listed in good condition.
"You almost can't walk out of your house and everything has to be so structured in the youths' schedules just to make them feel safe," Redmond said.
Hendricks was one of nine kids and teens shot this weekend in Chicago.
In 2022, 308 minors have been shot, 43 of them fatally, according to Chicago police data.
"Violence is so high. It's hard for them to go to the park," said Sam Castro with the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, a nonprofit working to combat gun violence in the city
He said children who are exposed to this level of violence need to speak with someone about how they are feeling so these experiences do not become normalized.
"Thinking about the mental health approach and getting them to open up to clinicians to talk about. I think about myself, I was shot at the age of three and I never talked about it and never released it until I got older - this is not right," Castro said.
As North Lawndale mourns together, Redmond said love is what heals the heartbroken community.
"With that village comes a village of love. Every kid needs to feel the kind of love Rishawn felt in his home," Redmond said.
Following the shooting death of Hendricks, Chicago police said no one is in custody and Area Four detectives are investigating.
