On July 5, a prayer vigil was held for seven-year-old Amari Brown, who was gunned down while standing in the 1100 block of North Harding Street around midnight on July 3. Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told CBS 6 the bullet that killed Brown “was meant for his father, a ranking gang member” who has been “arrested 45 times.”
CNN reports that Amari had just returned from “a Fourth of July celebration at his grandmother’s house” and was standing outside when fatally shot. His father, Antonio Brown, said, “He was a clown, man, just like me.”
Relatives and church family held “a Sunday afternoon prayer vigil on the sidewalk” close to where he was shot. A network of pastors pledged “a thousand dollars for information leading to an arrest” in the shooting, and Reverend Marshall Hatch said, “None of us will be safe until all of these children are safe.”
Family friend Michael Singleton spoke to the media at the prayer vigil, saying that until those committing the violence are captured and the violence ended, “[the media] will be back out here next week, on another corner, filming the same thing, from somebody else, saying exactly what I’m saying.”
A 26-year-old woman who was standing with Amari was also shot Friday night, but police made clear she was not an intended target, either.
Breitbart News previously reported that by the morning of July 5 alone, 38 people had been shot over the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, and seven of those died.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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