[Red State] The sad reality of today is that there are a dozen or more stories across the country from just the last few days of African-American children dying from gun shots — and none were fired from the weapon of a police officer.The reports out of city after city over the past few weeks about record numbers of deaths from gunshots are just almost mind-numbing.
Earlier today my colleague Brandon Morse covered the story in Atlanta about an 8 year-old girl shot and killed while in a car with her mother at the entrance to what used to be the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed by an Atlanta Police Officer three weeks ago. The 8 year-old girl, Secoriea Turner, was killed when two armed men shot into the car after her mother refused to yield to their instructions when she attempted to turn around and leave the parking area. They weren’t security or police — they were just two criminals with guns "dictating" to law abiding people in Atlanta what they must do. Maybe for Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms this was finally "enough is enough." That’s what she said today. But those are just words. Maybe she’ll call Fulton County DA Paul Howard and make him understand how destructive to policing it is to prosecute a police officer for "felony murder" when he’s pursuing a fleeing felon who had just assaulted another officer with a weapon that Howard himself called a "deadly weapon" in a televised press conference only 2 weeks earlier.
But I want to call attention to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s press conference earlier today about the shooting death of 11 year old Davon McNeal on July 4th, while his mother was hosting a "nonviolence" cookout at the home she shared with the little boy.