Shootings are tragically common in Chicago which sometimes sees 90 homicides a week, but this particular murder has transfixed the city and received national attention thanks to the victim’s famous cousin and a controversial tweet Donald Trump sent out after her death.
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26, and Derren Sorrells, 22, also were charged with attempted murder in Friday’s shooting.
As previously reported, Aldridge was pushing her infant child in a stroller Friday afternoon in Chicago, when she was fatally shot in both her arm and head.
Police concluded that Aldridge was not the intended target.
Authorities are investigating whether the encounter between the men was a robbery, possibly involving a driver from a ridesharing company, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said on Saturday. At a news conference on Sunday, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson said that both men are gang members who were on parole for gun convictions. “When will enough be enough?”
Wade’s nephew Darin Johnson was one of six people shot by two gunmen in a South Side convenience store in 2012 in which one person was killed, the Chicago Tribune said.
“It should tell you it’s time to stop talking and to get serious and to take action when it comes to how we sentence our repeat gun offenders”, said Johnson”.
“My cousin was killed today in Chicago”, Wade tweeted Friday night.
Wade, who has spoken out about gun violence in the past, expressed his sorrow and frustration on Twitter, saying, “Another act of senseless gun violence”. “She loved God, loved her family, ‘ Jones said”.
The Bulls guard and his mother, pastor Jolina Wade, took part Thursday in a forum on gun violence hosted by ESPN.
“We’re still going to try and help these people to transform their minds and give them a different direction so this thing won’t keep happening”, she said. The baby that was in the stroller was left unharmed and is now with a family member.
Two men were charged with first-degree murder on Sunday in Aldridge’s death. “We send our deepest condolences to the entire Wade family during this hard time”. “I can’t bring her back but I forgive them, and I just pray to God that they pray to God to ask forgiveness for what they’ve done”. “We ought to be extending our sympathy to the family – that’s the only reaction that is appropriate right now, and maybe a sadness about this gun violence issue, which we know is complicated”, Kaine said.
Wade also tweeted Saturday morning: “The city of Chicago is hurting”.
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The ever articulate position that black people shouldn’t be shot is what candidate Trump considers to be his general election pivot in order to curry favor among African American voters with recent polling showing the candidate only garnering 8% support among the black electorate.
