Johnny Edwards was 13 years old. He would have turned 14 on Monday.
The two other teens, boys aged 15 and 17, were students at Bowen High School, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The 13-year-old, Johnny Edwards, was remembered Friday evening by family and neighbors as a helpful boy who played in after-school sports programs and loved math and science.
“He was humble,’’ his uncle John Johnson said. “He showed respect. He helped his brothers, his sisters and cousins with their homework. He liked to help people.’’
According to witnesses, the three victims were shot in different locations.
Supt. Jody Weis, who was on the scene after the shootings, said the teens were attacked by more than one shooter.
“It appears they were attacked by several individuals, one of which had an assault rifle,” Weis said at a news conference.
Another of the victims, Kendrick Pitts, 17, “about 10 days ago, was released from Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, where he had been for about three months for getting into fights,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
The 15-year-old victim was identified by friends and a law enforcement source as Raheem “Chiko” Washington, who attended Bowen High School, according to the Tribune.
I have not written about each and every young person who lost his or her life throughout Chicagoland, but I’ve noticed quite a few recorded in the posts of this blog.
I call once again for more funding for CeaseFire Chicago, the organization with the most comprehensive approach to ending the violence.
Why do we shoot each other? We could debate endlessly. For all our discussion, it happened again.
We need gun control. No, not necessarily fewer guns. We simply need to contol our guns, control ourselves.
Once again, I simply offer a lone lament and my prayers for the families.