Officials, faith leaders gather in vigil for Chicago gun violence victims, demand change
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A faith-based coalition is now on a mission to address a citywide epidemic of violence through a new office of gun violence reduction.
In what has become a tradition, those faith and community leaders were joined by those impacted by gun violence Sunday night, in a vigil seeking change.
Juan Salgado, 17, was shot and killed after leaving soccer practice. Maurice Clay, just 18, was killed in a hail of bullets outside his school. Behind their faces and names—and those of many others whose pictures are displayed in a memorial in Lincoln Park—was a tragedy of a life taken too soon to gun violence so far in 2024.
The tribute to the victims, sadly, has grown each year outside Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, 600 W. Fullerton Pkwy.
Inside the church, elected officials and faith leaders were busy mobilizing Sunday night at the ninth annual Citywide Vigil Against Violence. The vigil brings together community leaders who are determined to put a dent in senseless shootings that have destroyed countless families in Chicago.
The coalition of residents, faith leaders, and elected officials involved with the vigil is currently focused on creating what would be the city's first office of gun violence reduction through an ordinance.
The office, the group says, will bring funding, transparency, and accountability to a dedicated effort to reduce gun violence. This is something chief sponsor Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) said the city needs now more than ever.
"We removed ShotSpotter, which I think has given a lot of communities some concern—and we've seen upticks in personal violence involving handguns," Yancy said.
The impact of gun violence is something Shavon Buckhalter knows about all too well.
"All I be wanting to know—where's y'all mothers at, where y'all's fathers at?" she said.
Buckhalter's 14-year-old son, "Tony P," was leaving a friend's house on the South Side last week when he was shot multiple times. His mother said other teenagers were the attackers.
Tony P survived and is now on the mend. But Buckhalter's oldest son, Curtis, was gunned down back in 2020 in what she says was also a targeted attack.
The back-to-back tragedies have taken a toll on Buckhalter.
"I'm 46 years old. I want to live to be 100. I don't want to keep burying my kids or cremating my kids. They're supposed to be bury or cremate me—not the other way around," she said, "and there's something that needs to be done here in the city of Chicago."
Major change, whether it be through an office of gun violence reduction or by other means, is something the families who attended the vigil hope comes sooner than later.
Community leaders now calling on residents to put pressure on their aldermen to support the office of gun violence reduction ordinance.
Similar offices and programs have been launched across the country, including in Baltimore, New York City, and Oakland.