Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Saturday that blacks will vote for him in the November elections because of tragedies like the way NBA basketball star Dwyane Wade’s cousin was shot and killed while walking her baby in Chicago.
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Darwin Sorrells was sentenced to six years in prison in January 2013 on a gun charge and was released early on parole, while Derren Sorrells is a known gang member who also was on parole, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Aldridge was fatally shot by a stray bullet Friday afternoon while pushing a stroller down a street in Chicago’s South Side.
Nykea Aldridge’s famous relative, who grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs, tweeted to his almost 6 million followers about her death, saying Friday it was an “act of senseless gun violence” and posting Saturday morning that Chicago needs “more help& more hands on deck”.
Wade, who was born in Chicago, signed with the Chicago Bulls this July in a move that was celebrated by the city as a homecoming.
She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Wade has been an outspoken critic of rampant gun violence and took the stage at this year’s ESPY Awards with fellow National Basketball Association superstars LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul to speak about the issue. She was near the school because she planned to register some of her four children, police said.
Authorities say 26-year-old Darwin Sorrells Jr. and 22-year-old Derren Sorrells were charged Sunday in the death of Nykea Aldridge.
In a statement Friday night, the Chicago Bulls said, “The entire Chicago Bulls organization is deeply saddened by the news of Dwayne Wade’s cousin, Nykea Aldridge”.
According to the Chicago Tribune, which chronicles every homicide in the city, at least 455 people have been shot to death in Chicago in the first seven and a half months of the year.
Trump, who deleted his initial tweet after misspelling Wade’s first name, was criticized on social media for not mentioning Aldridge in his message. He decried the violence on Twitter, saying Chicago needs “more help& more hands on deck” and the city “is hurting”. Not for me and my family but for the future of our world.
Wade isn’t the only family of Aldridge that’s speaking about her senseless death. At the end of his tweet, Trump wrote: “Just what I have been saying”.
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Trump, who initially did not express sympathy for the family of the slain woman, Nykea Aldridge, later in the day posted a Twitter message offering his condolences.
