Anti-Violence Worker, 9-Year-Old Boy Fatally Shot In Separate Weekend Shootings
By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 17, 2017 5:00PM
An anti-violence activist was shot and killed—not a block away from where he held community outreach; and a nine-year-old boy was fatally shot in separate shooting over a violent weekend in Chicago, according to police and reports.
Activist William "Willie" Cooper, 58, was shot at around 4:15 p.m. on Sunday afternoon in the 100 block of West 95th Street—close to the Lilydale Outreach Workers for a Better Community, a nonprofit that provided teens with jobs, where Cooper was principal officer, according to police and reports. The victim was walking when gunmen drove up and opened fire, police said. He was pronounced dead pronounced dead on the scene and police did not have anyone in custody as of Monday morning.
"People are so cold-hearted," Patricia Carter, the victim's niece, told ABC7. "How could you take somebody's life? He helped everybody. I just don't understand."
In a separate shooting, nine-year-old Gustavo Garcia, 9, was struck and killed while he was riding in an SUV on Friday night in the 3500 block of East 97th Street, on the Far Southeast Side, according to police and reports. A second victim, a 31-year-old man was shot in the back, face and chest and listed in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center, police said. No suspects were in custody as of Monday.
The boy would have turned 10 next month, activist Andrew Holmes told the Sun-Times. He was remembered as a kid who "loved playing video games, loved his classmates and looked forward to going back" to school, the paper reports.
At least 56 people were shot, 11 fatally, over the weekend, the Tribune reports.
Law enforcement officials and the Department of Justice last month announced a new Chicago Gun Task Force—which includes 20 extra permanent Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. President Donald Trump said ahead of the announcement that Chicago violence had reached "epidemic proportions."