More children have have been shot in Chicago this year than the number of kids who have died of COVID-19 during the pandemic.
A total of 2014 children, under the age of 17, have died from the virus while a total of 261 have been shot dead in the liberal city this year alone, accordding to data from police and the Center for Disease Control. Of those who were shot in the windy city, 41 were killed.
Although COVID-19 cases among children spiked over the summer, the death rates in the demographic remain low, accounting for just 0-0.27 percent of pandemic fatalities nationwide.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, 25 people under the age of 18 died of the coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic in March of last year, the agency told Fox News.
That equals out to six minor deaths in every 100,000 people under 18 in the state.
Only seven states of the entire 52 reported no deaths among children, the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics report.
In Chicago, more children have been shot to dead across the city than have died of the virus in the whole state of Illinois.
Over Labor Day weekend alone, 63 people were shot in Chicago, including eight children. Among the six victims who died was 4-year-old Mychal Moultry, who was shot dead last Friday after a bullet was shot through the window of his father’s home as he sat inside getting his hair braided.
Moultry was visiting Chicago with his mother from Alabama when he was killed.
His mother, Angela Gregg told Chicago Tribune that she wants answers over why he was shot dead.
‘(He’s) not supposed to lose his life at 4 years old, and somebody needs to step up and say something,’ she said.
‘The police don’t know anything yet because no one is talking. No one is coming forward.
‘People aren’t answering their doors, and the people that are answering their doors are saying they don’t know anything. … Somebody in Chicago knows something.’
Chicago Police Superintendent David O. Brown addressed the bloody Labor Weekend in a press conference, where he asked reporters why the gunmen are ‘continuing to be around young people’.
‘You’re harming this community. You’re harming these families,’ he said, addressing the gunmen.
‘And we will be relentless in pursuing you as an offender.’
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed frustration with the lack of community cooperation when it comes to working with authorities, oftentimes done out of fear of retribution.
‘I understand the fear that’s out there but I’m just calling upon people in these neighborhoods…,’ Lightfoot said.
‘You’ve got to have your faith overcome your fear, you’ve got to step up.’
In July, President Joe Biden met with Lightfoot following a particularly violent July Fourth weekend, where 100 people were shot.
Biden had just recently introduced several proposals the month prior, in an effort to fight gun crime in major cities nationwide, specifically illegal guns with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
*story by DailyMail.com
