Too Close For Comfort: Save Our Concrete Roses

Chicago -- A 13-year-old girl remains on life support Sunday morning after being shot in the head after attending a family party early Sunday in the West Side’s Humboldt Park neighborhood.

The girl was shot while standing outside a home with adults at 3414 W. Potomac Ave. at 1:54 a.m. according to a police source, who said the girl lived at 3410 W. Potomac Ave.

Police responding to the shooting found a juvenile unresponsive on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head, police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien said.

Emergency crews took one shooting victim from the address to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in critical condition, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Richard Rosado.

The girl was standing outside a home on her block with her mother and a cousin after attending a family party when a Hispanic man walked up to her and opened fire, Shakespeare District Capt. Marc Buslik said.

The girl was initially put on life support, Buslik said.

Family members at the scene said the girl remained hospitalized Sunday morning in critical condition and was brain-dead.

Police said the shooting was possibly gang-related and it was unclear whether the girl was the intended target.

Grand Central Area detectives are investigating. No one is in custody for the shooting Sunday morning.

Source: MyFox Chicago

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'The girl" referenced in this story was a close personal friend of my nephews and she lived around the corner from my building in an area where I've walked numerous times to get to the nearby park with my son; where my nephew visits often and where we were just starting to believe and endorse that a change was coming. Hearing the news saddened me, because I have basically lived in this neighborhood since I was born. That's a long time to believe in a certain area. So, the fact that it was so close to where I dwell, the fact that my nephew knew and loved her, the fact that it could have been him saddens me beyond belief. When I heard the news, I immediately started searching on our T/MC Program Locator to find programs in my zip code (60651).

I found three:

Sembrando El Futuro
1305 N. Hamlin Ave.
773-384-8118

Association House - After School Program
1116 N. Kedzie
www.associationhouse.org
773-772-7170

Cluster Tutoring Program - "Hit The Books"
5460 W. Augusta Blvd.
773-378-5530

I'm not the only zip code in the Humboldt Park area however. What comes up when you search your zip code? Is your child in a tutoring/mentoring program? Shouldn't he or she be? Can we change this disgusting epidemic of youth violence TOGETHER? Of course we can, one block, one community, one child at a time. But we all — as parents, civilians, concerned citizens alike — need to band together to recognize the problem. Take action and enroll our children. STAY ACTIVE with our child while they attend these programs to see that both our child's mindset and ours are both reformed to what our child can be, what he can accomplish, what her strengths and weaknesses are and BUILD on them. Know that there are better places for our children to be, perhaps better people for them to befriend than their current circle... the sky is truly the limit. But do we let our child know that? Let's start doing more as the adult... giving hope to the kids that we believe in them... in the sincerest hope that NO MORE innocent lives are taken.

Get involved in a tutor/mentor program and support what we do here to save lives, build dreams, and see our youth succeed. Give your time, your money, your effort. We need it. Your kids... need it.

The little girl was pronounced dead yesterday. May she rest in peace at least, she hadn't even had the chance to live.