Local officials and CPS parents demanded an end to violence on Thursday after a shooting near Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood left one teen dead and two others wounded. NBC 5’s Natalie Martinez reports.
Local officials and CPS parents are speaking out after a shooting near Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood left one teen dead and two others wounded.
The shooting marks the second fatal shooting targeting CPS students outside a school in less than a week, as two teens were shot to death outside Innovations High School in the Loop last Friday.
Some parents of Senn High School students arrived early to pick their children up on Thursday, worrying about the safety of students leaving school around dismissal time.
"We should feel safe sending our kids together. But we need more police presence and more, like, safe passage. We don't really see too much over here," one parent told NBC Chicago.
Wednesday's shooting occurred just outside the high school shortly after 3:30 p.m. in the 1200 block of West Thorndale Avenue.
Police said three teens were walking on the sidewalk when a vehicle pulled up and gunmen stepped out and opened fire.
All three teens were struck, with one of them, 16-year-old Daveon Gibson, succumbing to his injuries.
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Community activist Andrew Holmes spoke to Gibson's family in the aftermath of the tragedy.
"They're hurt. They want to look after this young man he said played basketball and watched a lot of video. Nobody's looking for this," Holmes said.
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At a vigil near Senn High School on Thursday night, a classmate of Gibson remembered him as someone "you wanted to be friends with."
"He was the nicest kid. No matter what you said, who you were, he was kind to everyone," Jones Sweetman said of Gibson.
Sweetman said he played basketball with Gibson in first period last semester when they shared gym class together.
According to 48th Ward Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, police presence near Senn High School was increased on Thursday, though she hopes students feel safe across the city.
"It's really an epidemic. We have to acknowledge where we are right now, and we have to get guns off the streets and we have to get the services and supports that young people need," Manaa-Hoppenworth said.
Mayor Johnson was asked about the recent shootings at an event on Thursday, where he said a collaborative effort is needed to combat the violence.
"We're going to continue to make sure that our school communities are coordinating with our police department, but as I've said repeatedly, it is not just a policing response. It's not just government. It is literally going to take all of us," Johnson said.
