gun violence – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

Jacksonville Shooter Targeted Other Gamers

KTLA — The suspect who opened fire during a Madden video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, on Sunday actively targeted other gamers in his shooting spree, Sheriff Mike Williams said.

David Katz, a 24-year-old gamer from Baltimore, Maryland, was in town for the tournament at GLHF Game Bar at the Jacksonville Landing, a downtown shopping and dining complex. He walked past patrons in other parts of the restaurant and then opened fire on his fellow competitive gamers before killing himself, Williams said.

The shooting left two people dead, 10 injured from gunshots and one person with a non-gunshot injury, Williams said. All of the injured are expected to survive, he said.

“As bad as this is, it could have been much worse,” Williams said. Continue reading “Jacksonville Shooter Targeted Other Gamers”

Teen Gunman Shoots 2 Children And A Teacher At South Carolina Elementary School

Two children and a teacher were shot by a gunman at an elementary school in Townville, South Carolina.

According to KTLA:

The suspected shooter, a teenager, is in custody, deputy chief Taylor Jones said.

The students were sent to a local trauma center, Jones said.

One child was taken to Greenville Health System emergency trauma center by helicopter, spokeswoman Sandy Dees said.

The teacher also was hospitalized. The severity of the injuries is not known.

The mother of a student at Townville Elementary School told CNN Greenville affiliate WYFF that her daughter and classmates huddled in a bathroom.

“Her teacher was shaken up. I know all the kids were scared. There was a bunch of kids crying,” the unidentified woman said. “She didn’t talk for about five minutes when I got her. … I’m just so scared. I don’t even want her to go to school now.”

Chicago aka “Chi-Raq” Hits 500th Homicide Of 2016 Over Labor Day Weekend

Chicago’s 500th homicide of the year happened over Labor Day weekend, according to the Chicago Tribune.

That number carries a lot of weight for the city — not just in quantity, but in meaning: 2016 is now the deadliest year in two decades.

CHICAGO VS. OTHER CITIES

When you compare Chicago’s homicide rate to that of other big cities in the country — New York and Los Angeles, for example — it tops the list.

But Chicago is not the homicide capital of the United States.

New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore and Newark all have higher rates when you drill down the data per capita.

However, this doesn’t tell the entire story of Chicago’s bloodshed. There’s another statistic that points to a disturbing trend the city is facing: a surge.

WHAT 500 MEANS

In the early 2000s, the homicide rate in Chicago held steady, but it began an upward tick in 2014 and has been increasing ever since.

But 2016 is the deadliest year in two decades when it comes to homicide rates.

Chicago hit 500 homicides before the end of the summer. In 2015, the city had 480 homicides total.

The day-to-day breakdown of those figures is alarming. For example, there were 12 murders on Father’s Day weekend alone. The youngest victim was just 16.

THE GUN PROBLEM

A lot of the homicides in Chicago are gun-related. There are nearly 82 shootings per week. In just one weekend in August, there were eight gun-related homicides and 64 non-fatal shootings.

Chicago has strict gun laws, which is why many gun rights advocates point to it as evidence that tighter regulation doesn’t equal less crime. But Chicago’s gun violence problem is more complicated. Sixty percent of the guns used in shootings were purchased out of state.

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner recently signed a new gun control law that imposes harsher penalties on those who bring in guns from out of state to sell and do not have gun-owner ID cards.

WHO’S TO BLAME?

There’s a deeply rooted distrust of Chicago’s police force.

The city’s police department has been under review for months in the wake of high-profile officer-involved shootings, including that of Laquan McDonald.

That independent task force has accused the police of institutional racism, saying they “have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.”

But the other side of this battle is the street crime in Chicago, which has led to the killing of innocent bystanders and kept residents shut inside their homes out of fear.

Englewood resident Stephanie Armas, 43, said she taught her kids from a very young age what to do when they hear gunshots.

“If you live in a society where (your children) have to learn to duck and dodge bullets, you have to teach them how to duck a dodge bullets,” Armas said on September 1. “That’s all you can do.”

Some Chicagoans partly blame the violence on economic struggles and lack of jobs. However, Chicago’s unemployment rate fell from 6.1% in 2015 to 5.5% in 2016.

THE PEOPLE

We often point to Chicago’s alarming homicide numbers, but the real tragedy in this city are the victims and the families left behind.

They are the ones who face this violence every day, the ones who stand over gravestones, the ones who’ve lost hundreds of sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers.