Once again we see that Chicago is no Ferguson, Missouri, as the national media ignored another 30 shootings in the Windy City over the August 22 weekend. More shockingly, during the carnage several children were shot this weekend, adding to an incident earlier this week week in which a nine-year-old boy was shot six times.
The bloodshed began Thursday when nine-year-old Antonio Smith was found dead a few blocks from the apartment complex in which he lived. The boy was shot six times. A fatal shot to his head killed him.
The boy was a popular presence in the neighborhood, and no one can understand why he was targeted and killed.
Little Antonio’s mother told the media, “I can’t even grasp… no words to tell you how I’d feel… I’m gonna die. I love [every] one of my kids… This is a mother’s fear.”
Along with Antonio, eight others were also wounded Thursday.
The violence continued as Friday and the weekend arrived. As Sunday night went dark the tally came to 4 killed and 24 wounded over this bloody weekend.
A 17-year-old was killed by gang members on South Marshall, a man in his twenties was shot in a drive-by, a 30-year-old was also gunned down, and the fourth man killed was a 40-year-old who was also killed in a drive-by shooting.
Saturday saw the shooting of another small child as a three-year-old boy was shot in the head late in the evening. This was the result of an accidental shooting as the boy and a friend were playing with a gun they found left in a bedroom by the boy’s father.
After the shooting the father took the gun and fled the scene.
Another young boy, a 14-year-old, was shot in the Austin neighborhood on Sunday.
Even as Monday dawned, the bloodshed did not end. Early Monday morning two men were killed in shootouts with police in two separate incidents.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.