Clemente High School Loses Third Student To Gun Violence This Year
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Feb 18, 2013 11:40PM
An honors student at Roberto Clemente High School was shot and killed on Friday night in Humboldt Park, leaving students mourning a third fallen student this school year. Frances Colon, 18, was leaving a Humboldt Park store around 7 p.m. Friday evening when she was caught in the crossfire, fatally shot in the back.
Jeffrey Stewart, 16, was shot and killed on Dec. 9. Rey Dorantes, 14, was shot and killed on Jan. 11, as he stood on his porch. All three shootings happened in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.
Colon was a college-bound senior heading to Northeastern Illinois University and hoped to become a lawyer. She had recently been named "student of the month" at Clemente. Her father drove past the scene of the shooting, but did not know his daughter was the victim until the next day. Her father said one of his last moments with his daughter on Friday was discussing Pres. Barack Obama's speech at Hyde Park Academy. The Tribune writes:
"She said, 'About time they do something with the gun thing,' " he said, adding that Obama and other elected officials need to "make these people more afraid" to shoot each other by making tougher penalties.
A second Chicago Public Schools student was shot and killed over the weekend. Oscar Marquez, 17, was a junior at the Marine Math and Science Academy. He was shot and killed in the Little Village neighborhood on Friday evening while shopping for shoes.