Posted on 04/22/2003 10:19:48 AM PDT by JustPiper
Seven-year-old Ashlee Poole was enjoying her Easter jelly beans on her front porch with her cousin and her mother when bullets started flying.
She scrambled for safety behind her mom, who was holding open a glass door shattered by the gunfire that erupted on South Hermitage Avenue in front of her home.
Then Ashlee was struck by a bullet, and her body crumpled in the doorway.
"Her cousin fell on top of her trying to get inside," said Ashlee's grandmother, Bessie Long. "Her mother dragged Ashlee inside and was screaming more than the child was. Ashlee said, 'Grandma, I've been shot.' She began to pray. She was asking God to take care of her."
Monday, Chicago police were hunting for suspects in Sunday afternoon's shooting in the Englewood neighborhood. Twenty-one shell casings were found on the street outside Ashlee's home in the 6000 block of South Hermitage, police spokesman Thomas Donegan said.
She was taken to the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she was treated for a bullet wound that damaged her kidney and her colon, and nicked her spine, Long said. Ashlee underwent surgery to repair her colon and was expected to receive a CT scan to see whether she suffered permanent damage to her spine, her grandmother said.
Ashlee was one of three juveniles shot in less than a week in Chicago.
Sergio Moyett, 34, has been charged with the April 16 killing of 14-year-old Jeryme Brown, whom Moyett mistakenly suspected of throwing rocks at his van in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, prosecutors said.
Julio Martha, 17, and Juan Hernandez, 22, have been charged with wounding a 10-year-old girl April 15.
The girl, whom police did not identify, was hit by a stray bullet in a gang shooting, police said.
Long held a news conference Monday to denounce the violence. She pointed out that a bullet shattered a rear window in the same home last Father's Day.
"You can't sit on your porch, and your children can't even play in the backyard anymore," Long said. "This is absolutely uncalled for."
Ashlee had accompanied her mother, Brenda Jordan, and her grandmother to church services Sunday. Later in the day, Ashlee, a first-grader at nearby Earle Elementary, finished a book report due Monday at school.
"She asked her mother if she and her cousin, Pierre, could sit on the porch after she finished her homework," Long said. "I gave them some plastic eggs filled with jelly beans."
The 7-year-old cousins and Ashlee's mother were on the porch when shots rang out about 4:45 p.m. Sunday.
Police said they suspect the shooting stemmed from an argument earlier in the day when a man was visiting a girlfriend on the block. Another young man confronted him and snatched a gold chain from his neck, police said.
The man whose chain was pulled from his neck returned in a 1992 Chevrolet Astro van that was stolen earlier in the day, police said.
The man--and perhaps an accomplice--opened fire on the group involved in the earlier confrontation, police said.
Area 1 detectives were interviewing witnesses Monday to confirm the identity of the man whose gold chain was taken.
Police said they found the van abandoned in the neighborhood.
"The incident has left the family in a state of emotional shock and fear," community activist Derrick Mosley said, adding that he has sent letters to African-American churches urging them to assume more responsibility in preventing such shootings. "This is black-on-black crime. We must address this."
No, thank you anyway.
Why in the Hell would I put my neck on the line to help the police and testify against a street thug when I am not allowed to defend myself when the system turns him loose? If he comes after me when he gets out, and I shoot him in self defense, guess who goes to jail? The inner city has become a shooting gallery because there are so many unarmed targets living in it.
There is another answer, once used by citizens in this country when the authorities couldn't handle the crime load: Committees of Vigilence.
A few street thugs hanging from light poles with their gold chains dangling around their necks might do wonders for peace in this community.
VIGILANTES AND VIGILANCE COMMITTEES. In sections of the Texas frontier where courts and jails had not been established or where officials and juries could not be depended upon, committees of vigilance were often formed to stamp out lawlessness and rid communities of desperadoes. Sometimes these secret bodies degenerated into mob rule or were used for private vengeance, but usually they were made up of law-abiding, responsible citizens who wanted only to maintain order and to protect lives and property. They operated against murderers, horse thieves, cattle rustlers, and those who held up stagecoaches and trains. Sometimes they acted without warning, but often they gave notice for offenders to leave. Those who failed to do so might be caught and hanged. As vigilantes usually operated at night and were not inclined to talk, their activities seldom had detailed public notice, but newspaper files and other chronicles indicate that they were active in many parts of Texas, especially in the two decades following the Civil War....
It's amazin' what eight rounds of triple-ought buck will do to discourage jackasses with handguns. Even the thought of it can discourage bad behavior.
The sickness is violence and the medicine is gun control. The places that are the most violent - the sickest - are not coincidentally the ones with the strictest gun control. You advocate making gun control even stricter, never mind the obvious failure of so many rounds of it before, to cure those places of violence. Look at Britain - the gun control they have there, and the recent trends in violent crime there. You still think more gun control, even stricter that the British already have it, is the solution?
A very intelligent statement. I only hope the churches hold some sway over the community...
Oh, this lil' ole' story? Old news for Jessie. This was the 'in' news back in the mid 70's!
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