Melissa Ortega, who moved to the US from Mexico, was shot dead due to gang violence in Chicago
Melissa Ortega was killed by a gunman on Saturday while she was walking with her mother. (Represent)
Chicago, USA:
An 8-year-old girl who just moved to Chicago from Mexico was shot dead over the weekend, the most obvious victim of gang violence in the Midwestern US city.
Melissa Ortega was walking with her mother in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Saturday afternoon when gunshots were heard, police said.
The girl and her mother rushed to a nearby bank for safety, but Ortega was hit twice in the head and died.
Police said the apparent target of the gunman was a 26-year-old man, a suspected member of the Gangster Two Six street gang, who was shot in the back and was hospitalized.
The Gangster Two Six street gang has a feud with two other local gangs – the Latin Saints and the Latin Kings.
At least 13 9mm shell casings were found near the scene of the shooting. The shooter is still big.
Chicago, the third largest US city, leads the nation in homicides in 2021 with more than 836, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office – the most in 25 years.
There have been 34 homicides in the city so far this year, according to the Chicago Tribune.
A GoFundMe set up for the Ortega family said the little girl and her mother recently moved to Chicago from Mexico to “build the American Dream”.
It said she would be buried in her hometown of Los Sauces in the Mexican state of Tabasco.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown denounced Ortega’s murder during a news conference Monday.
“We owe it to Melissa and her family and the city to hold everyone involved,” Brown said.
“It would be indescribable to lose the life of an eight-year-old, a little girl, under these circumstances, or any other for that matter.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot pledged to “send a very clear message and deliver a very strong blow to every gang member in our city.”
“Obviously, this little girl is not the intended target, but given the fact that they are reckless and operate without regard for the sanctity of human life, we must stand up to them and use every means available to them. arbitrary tool to do it. ,” she said.
Ortega’s death comes less than two weeks after two 14-year-old boys were murdered in separate incidents in Chicago.
Jason Ivy was standing on the sidewalk on the city’s West Side on January 13 when witnesses said two people walked up to him and shot him twice in the chest.
Hours later, 14-year-old James Sweezer was walking with a friend on the city’s South Side when someone in a dark car shot him in the head.
According to the Gun Violence Archive website, more than 44,000 people were killed by guns in the United States last year, including suicides, 1,517 of whom were minors.
