Last Saturday night’s attempted attack on the White House Correspondents Association Dinner felt shocking. Gunshots popped. Politicians and media figures in formal clothes dove for cover under white-clothed tables, alongside catering staff and hotel workers.
The attacker was stopped before anyone was seriously hurt, and it was, of course, headline news.
Here are some other stories from last weekend the you may not have heard.
The afternoon before the correspondents’ dinner, 16-year-old Marquise Byfield was shot and killed inside a deli in Brooklyn. Police say there have been 15 shootings since the beginning of the year just within that precinct.
Later that night, 17-year-old Trashawn Foster was shot near a park in Homestead, Florida, just south of Miami. He was airlifted to a hospital, and died.
Early Saturday morning,16-year-old Kha’Mari Harrison was shot and killed in an apartment complex in Hope Mills, North Carolina. Her family wrote, “we grieve not only the loss of her presence but also the beautiful life that was still unfolding before us, full of promise, joy and love.”
Mid-morning Saturday, a robbery suspect who had been arrested and brought to a hospital on the north side of Chicago allegedly shot two police officers and escaped. Officer John Bartholomew, a 10-year veteran of the department, died. Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters, “This is a very, very, extremely dangerous profession, but our officers go out there every single day.”
Saturday night, just after the Washington DC attack was thwarted, Abdul Saleh, who ran Sal’s Deli & Grocery with his brothers in New York’s East Village, was shot along with another man. Abdul Saleh died. He was 28 years old. Eby Castro, who lives nearby, told NY1, “They’re all amazing brothers, honestly. If you were hungry and you didn’t have money, they would not let you go hungry.”
It is discouraging to note that it was an average weekend for gun violence in our times.
President Trump has called on the White House Correspondents Association to reschedule the dinner soon, with tighter security. But gun violence strikes America every day, threatening those who lack the protections of metal detectors and Secret Service, and who just want to walk safely where they live.
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