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Fifty-two children under 15 have been shot and 10 killed so far this year.

Children in Chicago are dying from gun violence at a rate three times higher than last year, according to a Sun-Times analysis.

Ten children aged 15 or younger have been shot dead so far this year, up from the three children fatally shot during the same time period in 2020, according to Sun-Times records. And that’s more than the number killed in all of 2019, the data shows.

Out of nearly 1,500 shooting victims so far this year, at least 52 victims were 15 and younger, compared to 43 last year, an increase of 21%. The increase in child shooting victims tracks closely with the overall spike in Chicago shootings — adults included — of 20.3%.

When looking at the total number of shootings, the rate of children shot, however, is similar to that of last year. So far this year, 3.4% of all shooting victims were 15 years old and younger — the same percentage of child victims in 2020.

“I don’t understand how we are not as a city absolutely outraged,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a longtime crusader against gun violence who leads St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham. “Our children are becoming extinct.”

The trend continued over the violent weekend, when two teens who were recently shot in the head succumbed to their wounds.

Savanah Quintero, 14, was gunned down last Wednesday in Back of the Yards after her attackers asked if she was in a gang, officials said. Robert Barr, 15, was struck during a May 26 shooting in Englewood that also wounded two other teens and a 22-year-old man. Both of them died on Saturday.

Since they were pronounced, a 15-year-old boy was shot Sunday in Riverdale and an 11-year-old girl was wounded less than three hours later in West Pullman. They were among the nearly 60 people shot in Chicago over the weekend.

Brendan Deenihan, the Chicago Police Department’s chief of detectives, said Monday the girl was visiting from out of town. “She was sitting in a car when another car drove by, gunshots were fired and she was struck,” he said at a news conference.

The girl was hit in the back and seriously wounded, though Deenihan said her condition had stabilized. He noted that detectives were seeking witnesses and videos of the shooting.

Deenihan also told reporters that investigators have “some good videos” related to Savanah’s slaying and may release images soon. But he acknowledged that no arrests have been made in the the recent homicides or the 11-year-old’s shooting.

Provided

‘She’s scared somebody’s gonna run up and shoot her’

Earlier this year, the fatal shooting of young Jaslyn Adams garnered national media attention and led to a pair of arrests, as well as a nationwide manhunt.

Jaslyn, a smiley and energetic 7-year-old nicknamed “Pinky,” was sitting in her father’s car on April 18 at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Homan Square when two gunmen got out of an Audi and opened fire.

Jaslyn was shot six times and was later pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital. Her father, Jontae Adams, was wounded in the attack but lived.

Jaslyn’s paternal grandmother LaWanda McMullen said Monday her family is still grieving her granddaughter’s untimely death. McMullen said another 8-year-old granddaughter will no longer play outside because “she’s scared somebody’s gonna run up and shoot her.”

“All they can do is sit in their house and play on their phones because they can’t go outside and play,” McMullen said. “It’s just sad, they’re shooting our babies at parties, friends’ birthday parties, amusement parks.”

Just last week, a co-worker told McMullen that her nephew was shot with his 7-year-old son in the car in Calumet Heights.

“Something needs to be done. What can be done? I don’t know,” McMullen said. “I’m speechless right now because it’s just horrible. It’s horrible.”

Even the young victims that survive are traumatized, said Taal Hasak-Lowy, executive director of Friends of the Children Chicago. Her group, which provides mentors to students in kindergarten through high school in Austin and North Lawndale, said a second grader in her program recently narrowly escaped shots fired at her home.

“These kids have witnessed more violence in their short years than most of us have seen in even the violent movies,” she said. “These are terrifying times and there’s no words that will make somebody feel better. What’s going to make someone feel better is investing in programs and services that can truly make a difference.”

Anthony Vázquez/Sun-Times file photo

‘This isn’t a shock’

Tamar Manasseh, head of Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings, was saddened but not surprised by the jump in child fatalities so far this year.

“This isn’t a shock,” she said, noting the cluster of calls her longtime anti-violence group receives from reporters every year following annual violence over Memorial Day weekend. “At this point, it almost seems like something that’s supposed to happen.”

This year has the added stress of a city reopening and people moving freely after months in lockdown. On top of that, she warned there are too many guns on the street that end up in the wrong hands.

“People are still poor, and until you find a way to bring more educational and job opportunities to these neighborhoods, this is what you’re going to get every year,” she said. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshops.”

Pfleger said government officials should tackle the issue the same way they handled the COVID-19 pandemic — with massive spending and an all-hands-on-deck approach.

After being cleared to return to St. Sabina following an investigation into sex abuse allegations, Pfleger has spoken out strongly against the rash of shootings that have wounded children, which he called “unacceptable.” Starting this Friday, he plans to again start leading walks to problem areas in an effort to quell tensions and offer support.

“It’s hard to heal when you’re in the middle of a war,” he said. “Every day is a war zone.”

Contributing: Andy Boyle, Jesse Howe, Alison Martin

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Big dance numbers set to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs put the magnificent cast in motion.

It would be sooooooo cool in more ways than one if the sensational musical “In the Heights” had an intermission, at which point the audience could file into the lobby and visit a piragua stand featuring shaved ice cones in a variety of flavors. For this is a perfect summer movie arriving in a reopening summer, and a heat wave and subsequent power blackout become major plot points in the story — and yes, from time to time we see a piraguero pushing his cart down the block, hawking those refreshing icy treats.

That vendor is played by the one and only Lin-Manuel Miranda, who forever will have “Hamilton” attached to his name but scored his first major Broadway triumph writing the music and lyrics and playing the lead in the Tony Award-winning “In the Heights” in the late 2000s. The film adaptation (with superb direction from John M. Chu of “Crazy Rich Asians”) was originally scheduled for a June 2020 release but was postponed due to the pandemic — and while it will be available simultaneously on HBO Max, one hopes the true streaming phenomenon will involve millions of movie fans streaming into theaters to catch this infectiously entertaining, fantastically choreographed, consistently involving and absolutely gorgeous musical spectacle on the biggest screen and with the best sound possible.

At 41, Miranda is still a young man, but he has aged out of playing the role of the twentysomething corner bodega owner Usnavi — a role now played to winning effect by Anthony Ramos (who played John Laurens/Philip Hamilton in original Broadway production of “Hamilton”). Usnavi is proud of his multicultural neighborhood of Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, and he loves the people he’s known forever — but he dreams of buying and restoring the beachfront bar once owned by his father in the Dominican Republic.

Warner Bros.

Nor is Usnavi the only one looking to escape the Heights. Melissa Barrera’s Vanessa, who works at the local hair and nail salon that is the gossip hub of the neighborhood, yearns to move downtown and break into the fashion industry. Salon owner Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega) is getting ready to move her business to the Bronx due to gentrification-induced rent increases. Leslie Grace’s Nina has already left the neighborhood and spent a year at Stanford, though she’s home for the summer and questioning whether she’ll ever fit in at the elite university.

For now, though, they’re all still in the Heights, along with Jimmy Smits’ Kevin, who is Nina’s widowed father and has sold half his car service business in an uphill battle to pay for her education; Corey Hawkins’ Benny, who works for Kevin and is in love with Nina; Gregory Diaz IV’s Sonny, an undocumented teen who is Usnavi’s cousin and protégé, and Olga Merediz’ Abuela Claydia, a Cuban immigrant who has helped raise pretty much the entire neighborhood.

Warner Bros.

These are the core cast members of “In the Heights,” and their interactions and romances and friendships and betrayals and triumphs and tragedies make for a sometimes melodramatic and soapy but always involving multi-story thread. From a dazzling opening ensemble street-corner set piece to the celebratory “Carnaval del Barrio” (taking place during a blackout and 106-degree temps) to a Busby Berkeley-esque water dance with nearly the entire cast at the Highbridge Pool to a sultry and intense dance number set in a nightclub, “In the Heights” features multiple group numbers incorporating pop, merengue, hip-hop, salsa and classic Broadway influences, and you’ll find it impossible to keep still in your seat. (At the very least your toes will be tapping.)

Perhaps even more effective are the more contemplative, story-advancing ballads, as when Benny and Nina duet on “When the Sun Goes Down” as they magically dance on the sides of an apartment building, or when Abuela Claudia is equal parts mournful and joyful when she remembers her childhood in Havana and sings “Paciencia y Fe (Patience and Faith”).

(Updates to the Broadway production include a DACA subplot with an immigrants’ rights protest, and there are other moments of political and social commentary — but it’s never heavy-handed and is authentically an integral part of the fabric of life in the Heights.)

Warner Bros.

Director John M. Chu moves his camera with brilliance and grace, though I do wish a few of the numbers featured less frantic cutting and more long shots displaying the enormous talents of the singers and dancers. The cast is universally magnificent, with veterans such as Jimmy Smits and Daphne Rubin-Vega turning in their typically strong work, and Olga Merediz reminding us of why she was nominated for a Tony for playing Abuela Claudia on Broadway. Mostly, though, this is the story of the young people, and the next-generation actors are an amazingly talented, charismatic and screen-popping group of performers. Anthony Ramos has charm to burn, while Melissa Barrera and Leslie Grace have the onscreen presence and talents to become major movie stars.

It would be a cliché to call “In the Heights” the Feel-Good Movie of the Year, but it would also be accurate. Perhaps for these times we might call it the Feeling-Better Movie of the year.

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