Peace Vigil Held In Defiance Of Mass Shooting
Mayor Says No To Gun Violence
(CBS) – Residents and Chicago's mayor gathered Friday evening for a vigil in defiance of the mass shooting that injured 13 people, including a 3-year-old child.
Pastor Corey Brooks' New Beginnings Church on Chicago's South Side – less than a mile from the shooting scene -- was the backdrop for the event.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the Chicago that people have been hearing about isn't the city he knows. He's calling for residents to end the code of silence and help police catch the bad guys behind gun violence in his city.
"That has to come to an end. We cannot allow children in the city of Chicago, and we will not allow the children in the city of Chicago, to have their youthfulness, their optimism, their hope taken from them. That's what gun violence does. That is wrong," Emanuel said.
But some, like the family of the three-year-old victim, say words are no longer enough to end the suffering on their streets.
"That's just another speech that the mayor says to every individual. We're going to hear him say it again at somebody else's vigil," Rochetta Tyler aunt of the victim, said.
Her family and others lined up to show the city they've endured enough pain.
"I had bullets flying past my head, maybe five or six. But the last one hit me in my back," shooting victim Neisha Brannon said.
Father Michael Pfleger marched for peace Friday alongside NBA great Isaiah Thomas -- both hoping to touch the hearts of those behind the crimes.
Police say assailants armed with an assault rifle sprayed the crowd with bullets as victims were gathered at Cornell Square Park at Wood and West 51st Street.
