It has been nearly four months since 13-year-old Sinzae Reed was fatally shot in an Ohio apartment complex by his neighbor Krieg Butler, a 36-year-old white man. The boy’s death was declared a homicide after a county coroner’s autopsy found he had been shot twice, including a fatal wound to the chest. But Butler remains […]
Gun Violence
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
A 13-Year-Old Black Boy Was Killed. Will Stand-Your-Ground Protect the Shooter?
A white man accused of killing a 13-year-old Black boy in Columbus, Ohio, has roamed free for nearly 90 days after prosecutors dismissed murder charges against him, prompting the boy’s family to demand officials provide an explanation and put the man back behind bars. Police say Krieg Allen Butler claimed he fired a gun in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Racist Buffalo Shooter Pleads Guilty, but Healing for Families Is Uncertain
Buffalo, New York, residents expressed relief that justice will be served in state court after a self-proclaimed white supremacist pleaded guilty Monday to killing 10 Black people in a neighborhood grocery store this spring. But some are concerned that the many lingering questions about the horrendous attack will remain unanswered without a public trial. The […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
The Buffalo Tops Supermarket Reopens 60 Days Later Despite Community Pushback
Tops Friendly Markets has reopened its Buffalo, New York, grocery store where 10 people were killed in a racist massacre in May, a decision that has outraged residents who hoped the location would be turned into a memorial. The predominantly Black community also has expressed dismay that the tragedy has not prompted officials to fulfill […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
The Mass Casualty Crime No One Is Talking About
A few hours of celebration turned into mourning at a high school graduation party in South Carolina in June when two vehicles pulled up and as many as 70 bullets were fired into the crowd, police said. Audrionna Kind, 32, was killed, and eight others — mostly teenagers — were injured. Kind, a mother of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Biden’s policies aren’t the only possible solutions to America’s gun violence epidemic
As the number of mass shootings has surged beyond the number of days in 2022, President Joe Biden addressed the country in a televised primetime speech Thursday to advocate for policy solutions and urge lawmakers to “finally do something” about the nation’s gun violence epidemic. Following the massacres of 10 Black people in New York, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
The Reading List: How Black Buffalo Became the Target of White Supremacist Hate
The Tops grocery store where a gunman killed 10 people this month is now the site of one of the deadliest acts of racial violence in recent United States history. The rampage targeted a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, that has suffered generations of segregation, pollution, and neglect. The 18-year-old charged in the shooting […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
The Trayvon Generation: 10 Years After His Death, Classmates and Teachers Reflect on the Impact
Jerome Horton talks about the morning of Feb. 27, 2012, like he lived through it yesterday. It started with a call from his longtime friend Tracy Martin, who wondered if Horton had heard from Martin’s son, Trayvon. The 17-year-old had gone to a nearby 7-Eleven in Sanford, Florida, the night before, but when Martin opened […]