Sen. Durbin, Cook Co. President Preckwinkle call for action on National Gun Violence Awareness Day
Call follows President Joe Biden speech on gun violence
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Senator Dick Durbin, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and others gathered on National Gun Violence Awareness Day to call for action to stop shootings in the Chicago area.
"Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and young people under the age of 25," Board President Preckwinkle said.
The effort continues to find common ground when it comes to gun control laws around the nation and follows President Joe Biden's address Thursday night demanding Congress do more to stop the violence.
RELATED: Mass shootings in the U.S. have nearly tripled since 2013, Gun Violence Archive data shows
"It's gun violence day, it's gun violence week and sadly it's gun violence year in America and it's been that way for too damn long," Durbin said. "This gun violence has become too common that it defines our country. It's time for us to say enough."
The press conference at Stroger Hospital came after a female Chicago police officer was shot in a traffic stop in West Englewood earlier this week.
FOP president John Catanzara said she is alert and awake, but needs surgery to remove gun fragments from her neck.
That shooting is hauntingly familiar to Chicago police, happening blocks awat from where they say two men shot and killed Officer Ella French, and seriously hurt her partner, Carlos Yanez last summer.
The police union president said Yanez and the injured female officer talked Thursday on Zoom from her hospital bed.
"They had a nice heart-to-heart," Catanzara. "I think it's probably a situation that only the two of them can even understand. There isn't too many officers who have been shot in the head and survived."
Police are looking for a 28 year old man who they believe to be the shooter in that incident, saying he has a history of gun crimes.
As that search continues, a U.S. Marshall and a K-9 are also recovering from injuries suffered yesterday in a Northwest Side shootout.
They were serving a warrant at the time. Two suspects have been arrested.
The K-9 and marshal are expected to be OK. But a violent week for law enforcement around Chicago as elected officials now face the challenge of finding avenues to stop this.
