Community rallies after 2 women, boy killed in Grand Crossing shooting; 2 boys wounded
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A South Side community rallied Friday after two women and a young boy were killed in a shooting Thursday morning that also left two boys wounded.
The city called Friday night's rally "Operation Wake Up." The shooting was just one of multiple incidents across the city at the start of a violent July 4th holiday weekend.
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It was an effort to promote healing in the community one day after multiple family members here were gunned down inside of a home.
The bullet-riddled windows of the Grand Crossing home show the heartache and despair left behind after several ski mask-clad gunmen rained a barrage of gunfire on the house Thursday morning, police said. The shooting left two children critically hurt, killing Nakeeshia Strong, her niece, Capri Edwards, and a 7-year-old boy.
"I would never think I would see my mom laying down the way she was," said Frank Mixon, Strong's son. "I didn't know when my last time was going to be with them. I thought I had years. I don't have nobody to call when I need to spend time with my mother. I don't have anybody like that anymore."
The boy was identified by family members to ABC7 as 7-year-old Bryson Orr. Chicago police had initially said the victim was 8 years old.
Mixon, 19, rushed from the basement to find his mother, little brother and cousin dead. He said he found Edwards shieling her one-year-old baby from gunfire. Her other two young sons, he said, were also shot and remain in critical condition at the hospital.
"I don't know why somebody would come in the house to shoot somebody with a kid in their hands," Mixon said.
In the wake of the deadly holiday shooting, Sam Binion, founder of Operation Neighborhood Safety, set up for the community rally "Operation Wake Up" near the scene at 71st Place and Woodlawn.
"We're giving them the love that they don't have," Binion said. "It's community love."
He brought some of the young victim's classmates from Paul Revere Elementary School, including Ayden Dexter.
"He was like a brother to me, for real," Dexter said. "Whenever I'm feeling down, he was always right there, like, 'Ayden, what's wrong?' Man, I'm just down, for real."
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CPD Supt. Larry Snelling spoke at the rally, promising his department will "work our fingers to the bone" until they find the killers.
"Where is the outrage for these children in our communities, these kids who are the future of these communities? Where is our outrage? Why aren't we stepping up for them? Because if we're not doing that, then we're failing not only our children, we're failing our community. You're also failing your future, because they are the future," Snelling said.
Police said the attack was targeted, stemming from an earlier incident. Relatives of the victims said Edwards was killed while shielding her 1-year-old child from the gunfire.
"Even if there was someone killed in your family, going back to kill other people won't bring them back," neighbor Aaron Jenkins said.
It is a tragic sentiment Jenkins believes is falling on deaf ears in the city. He hopes the rally could piece back together his broken community as the family grieves.
On Tuesday, the city will also set up an emergency resources center at Fosco Park on the Near West Side.
So far, no one has been arrested in the case. Police continue to investigate.
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