Gunfire wounds 7
Detroit teens; 3
critical
BY
CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
AND ZLATI MEYER
June 30, 2009
Seven
teenagers were wounded —
three critically — after
they were sprayed with
gunfire this afternoon
by two masked men at a
bus stop near Cody 9th
Grade Academy on the
city’s west side.
Police later
recovered a green
minivan about a mile
away that they believed
the gunmen used to flee.
Five of the seven
victims were taking
classes at Cody. Two
boys, ages 14 and 16,
and a girl, 17, were in
critical condition at
Sinai-Grace Hospital.
Four other victims
were taken to Henry Ford
Hospital. A 17-year-old
boy was in serious
condition, a 17-year-old
girl was in temporary
serious condition, and a
15-year-old boy and a
16-year-old girl were in
stable condition,
Detroit police said.
It was the second
shooting in as many
weeks near a Detroit
Public school offering
free summer school
classes.
Bria Wilson, 15, said
she never saw a green
minivan, or even the
gunmen who fired the
shots. But the sound of
gunshots meant it was
time to run.
Wilson got away, but
she said her 16-year-old
friend, a boy, was hit
multiple times – one of
the seven teenagers who
were shot, reportedly by
two gunmen who had their
faces cloaked.
“I was standing at
the bus stop next to
him,” Wilson said. “That
bullet came too close.
I’m not coming back to
this school.”
Today’s shooting was
the second in two weeks
at a Detroit Public
Schools high school
building offering free
summer classes to
make-up for failed
courses. Free summer
classes have drawn
thousands of high school
students, placing teens
from different schools
and neighborhoods in the
same buildings.
On June 18, a
16-year-old girl was
shot in the chest after
summer school dismissal
at Denby High when two
groups of teens clashed
about a block from the
east side school.
The shooting occurred
about 15 minutes after
summer school’s 2 p.m.
dismissal when a group
was at the bus stop on
the Southfield Freeway
service drive at Warren
near a gas station. A
green minivan pulled up
and two masked shooters
opened fire, according
to Detroit Police
Department spokesman Rod
Liggons.
The shooting may have stemmed from a fight in the school Monday,
according to witnesses.
Two women who jumped
out of a car to help the
injured teens described
the shooting scene as
heart wrenching. One boy
appeared to be bleeding
from his neck, left
side, chest and hand,
they said.
“We seen the babies
laying on the ground …
bleeding!” said one of
the women, who declined
to be identified. “We
stopped because the kids
tried to move him. I
told them, ‘No, please
don’t move him!’”
“He was talking. We
were just trying to keep
him calm,” the other
woman said. “I’m a
parent. I wouldn’t have
felt right if we didn’t
stop to help them.”
Anyone with
information about the
shooting is asked to
call Detroit Police at
313-596-2260.
Contact
CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY:
313-223-4537 or
cpratt@freepress.com
Warren Avenue over the
Southfield Freeway
(M-39) is closed due to
the shooting. In
addition, the M-39
off-ramp (Exit 8) to
Southfield is closed.
"They always talk
about what they want in
the future, but if they
don’t stop killing each
other"
Corrina Bain
By CORRINA BAIN • FREE
PRESS STAFF WRITER •
June 30, 2009
It’s sad when the
bus stop turns into the
wrong place at the wrong
time.
Seven teens were
shot after summer school
classes at Cody High
School were dismissed, a
Detroit Public Schools
official said. A group
of masked gunmen pulled
up to a bus stop and
opened fire on the
group. Only five of the
seven victims — four
boys and three girls —
were summer school
students at Cody.
The parents of these
shooting victims
probably didn’t think
twice about sending
their kids to classes
this morning. But they
were in for a rude
awakening when they
found out their child
had been shot as they
stood at a bus stop near
Warren and Southfield.
I wonder how the
shooters will sleep at
night. One of the
victims could be a
mother’s only child,
they could have had
dreams of being a
lawyer, a mayor, the
president of the United
States. But because of
the violence that some
students say stemmed
from a fight, several
lives have been ruined
today. Forever changed
are the lives of the
victims, shooters and
every witness to the
shooting, as well as the
lives of the women who
stopped to help the
victims as they lay
bleeding on the ground,
all their families and
even the people reading
this right now.
My mother has told me
stories about how back
in the day, they used to
settle arguments with
their fists. And even
still, the next day,
they’d be friends again.
But it seems those days
are no more.
What teens today need
to realize is that when
you shoot somebody,
there’s no turning back
after that.
The shooting today
shows that there will
continue to be
back-and-forth violence
if teens don’t change
their ways. They always
talk about what they
want in the future, but
if they don’t stop
killing each other, what
type of future will they
have? I’ll answer that:
There will be no future
for them if they don’t
stop killing each other
and focus on killing
violence.
Contact CORRINA
BAIN :
cbain@freepress.com
Corrina Bain, 17, is
a Free Press summer
apprentice. She
graduated from Cleveland
Intermediate High School
in Detroit and will
attend Central Michigan
University this fall.
|
Posted by The
Situationist
Staff on
June 6, 2009
David Kairys has
recently posted
his fascinating
essay, “Why
Are Handguns So
Accessible on
UrbanStreets?”
(forthcoming in
Against the
Wall: Poor,
Young, Black,
and Male (Elijah
Anderson, ed.,
Penn Press,
2008) on SSRN.
Here’s the
abstract.
This short essay
explains why it
is easier for
young black men
in many poor,
urban areas to
obtain a handgun
than an
up-to-date
school textbook
or a regular
job. A chapter
of Against the
Wall: Poor,
Young, Black and
Male, edited by
Elijah Anderson
with other
chapters by
Cornel West,
William Julius
Wilson, and
Douglas Massey,
the analysis
focuses on
handgun
marketing and
distribution and
addresses the
social and
political
context that
yields easy
availability of
handguns. Under
federal law and
the laws of most
states, any
person so
inclined can buy
huge quantities
of cheap, easily
concealed
handguns and
sell them to
others
indiscriminately,
often without
violating any
law and usually
without having
to worry much
about getting
arrested,
prosecuted, or
convicted. Nor
are the
identities of
owners of
handguns, or the
persons to whom
they transfer
ownership,
registered or
maintained by
government,
unless state law
so provides-and
most do not.
Convicted felons
are not allowed
to buy or
possess
handguns, but
the marketing
system up to
that point is
largely legal.
The person who
sells a handgun
to a person with
a felony
conviction has
no meaningful or
enforceable
responsibility.
Though the
handgun debate
is commonly cast
in terms of
"illegal guns,"
the central
problem resides
in what
continues to be
legal. Large
cities facing
declining job
opportunities,
losses in
population and
tax revenues,
and rising
levels of
deprivation are
being forced to
accommodate
virtually
unregulated
handgun markets.
The cultural and
political
identification
with guns and
the unregulated
handgun markets
have continuing
broad support
almost
exclusively in
rural areas and
have been
imposed on urban
and minority
communities. The
chapter examines
proposed handgun
regulations and
the political
and cultural
opposition to
them.
|
The Recent Surge in
Homicides involving
Young Black Males and
Guns:
Time to Reinvest in
Prevention and Crime
Control
James Alan Fox,
Ph.D. and Marc L. Swatt,
Ph.D.
Northeastern University
- From
2002 to 2007,
the number of
homicides
involving black
male juveniles
as victims rose
by 31% and as
perpetrators by
43%. In terms of
gun killings
involving this
same population
subgroup, the
increases were
even more
pronounced: 54%
for young black
male victims and
47% for young
black male
perpetrators.
- The
increase in
homicide among
black youth,
coupled with a
smaller increase
or even decrease
among their
white
counterparts,
was consistently
true for every
region of the
country and
nearly all
population
groupings of
cities. The
pattern also
held
individually for
a majority of
states and major
cities.
- After
some decline
during the
1990s, the
percentage of
homicides that
involve a gun
has increased
since 2000, both
among young
white offenders
and black
offenders of all
age ranges. The
percentage of
gun homicides
for young black
offenders has
reached nearly
85%. These
trends are
concomitant with
various
legislative
initiatives at
the federal
level that have
lessened the
extent of
surveillance on
illegal gun
markets.
Direct all inquiries
to James Alan Fox
at j.fox@neu.edu or
617-416-4400
|