This story is very disturbing to say the least. 2 mothers one 25 years old and the other 36, were killed during a drive by shooting in the neighborhood of Inglewood, located in Chicago, Illinois.
The shooting took place last Friday night a little before 10 pm, where the MASK organization sets up their non violence area. The Women who were killed, were advocates of the Mothers/Men against Senseless Killings (MASK) and also mothers of multiple young children. The advocates were packing up supplies after a long day of passing out food and advocating for peace in their community, When a blue SUV road by shooting in the crowd, killing the 2 women and wounding a man in the arm. Chicago PD don't believe these women were intentionally targeted. Instead they are believing the man who was hit in the arm may have been a target.
The 58 year old man had just got out of prison and police believe it may have been gang related. Although, he is not cooperating with the police there is no reliable answer as to what was the cause of this drive-by shooting. No known suspects, or person of interest have been found via CPD. Although the gun violence in Chicago has gone down, CPD statics show over 281 people have been shot and some killed since June 2019. Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote an email to the sun-times in Chicago stating there is no evidence the women were targets and there is also no evidence to connect anyone to the shooting.A memorial for the 2 victims were held this past Monday, on the corner for people to come show their respects with balloons and candles.
The Mask organized a GoFundMeCampaign for $5,000 to help seek justice for the 2 women who were killed. So far the campaign has reached over $9,000. The MASK whole mission is to end gun violence in the community and bring the neighborhood together. The organization started 5 years ago after a young woman was killed trying to break up a fight. A mother by the name of Tamarah Manassah, had enough of the violence and started the MASK program. Their mission is to "Build stronger communities through a focus on violence prevention, Food insecurity and housing.
The program has expanded to corners of Indiana and New York. Tamarah states in the video above, since they have been on the corner there has been 0 violence happening. Not even a fight. It is so unfortunate that for whatever reason someone decided to do a complete senseless act. There is a lot where the children play right next to the corner, created so that people can feel a sense of safety.
The whole point of the organization is not only helping keep the violence down but helping those in need by servicing them in many other ways. Be sure to check out the website the link is below as well as the gofundmelink. Hopefully this incident will bring awareness for more people to come together to stop the violence. There should be more MASK organizations in every city. These brave Mothers and Fathers standing on the same corner where there was so much violence and being able to not only cease the violence but acting as mentors and support groups for the neighborhood. Not only that, they patrol on the same streets their children play in. Talk about a take back our streets task force.
http://ontheblock.org/about/
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