More Than 40 Victims of Gun Violence in Chicago After Weekend of Shootings; Seven-Year-Old Girl Killed

This past weekend, at least 47 people became victims of gun violence in Chicago. Two of the victims were children: Serenity Broughton, 7, and her sister Aubrey, 6. The New York Post reports the girls’ mother was putting them in the back seat of their car when a bullet struck the two children. At the time, they were in Chicago’s Belmont Central section, a “gang-conflict area.”

“They were hugging,” said the grandma of the girls, Regina Broughton, who added that gunshots were going off around them. “When they separated and pulled apart, there was blood on both of them.

“Serenity’s injury was fatal. The bullet pierced her heart — she didn’t have a chance,” said Broughton. Police say that they don’t believe the mother and her daughters were the targets of the violence.

“To say that I am sad and outraged would be an understatement,” said Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott said Sunday. “I can only hope that every resident of this city is angry, saddened, and outraged as I am at this time. Too many young people have lost their lives to senseless gun violence in the city of Chicago.”