JACKSONVILLE — Darlene Neal was at a Saturday luncheon to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington when she heard the police sirens and saw rescue teams swirling past. Then, her phone started buzzing, again and again. “Ms. Darlene,” one of her messages said, “it’s near you.” Three Black people were killed after a […]
Gun Violence
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
The Racist Attack That Roiled Black Jacksonville Decades Before the Dollar General Shooting
The city of Jacksonville, Florida, is reeling from the racist killing of three Black people at a Dollar General on Saturday, after a white gunman targeted a historically Black neighborhood with weapons emblazoned with swastikas, authorities said. This weekend was already a notorious one for Black Jacksonville, falling on the 63rd anniversary of one of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
A Broken Justice System Is Only Deepening the Grief of Sinzae Reed’s Family
Megan Reed was in the middle of cooking dinner when she was startled by someone repeatedly banging on the front door of her Columbus, Ohio, apartment. A neighbor alerted her that her youngest son, Sinzae Reed, was shot. Reed rushed out of their second-floor apartment in the Wedgewood Village Apartments complex with food still cooking […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Shooting of Black Teen Is a Symptom of Kansas City’s Racist History
Alvin Brooks remembers growing up as the only Black kid in an all white, but poor white, Leeds-Dunbar neighborhood during the 1940s in Kansas City, Missouri. Although he made friends, he was reminded that in other parts of the city he was not welcome. Sometimes the streetcar’s white motorman charged him a nickel to board […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Sinzae Reed’s Admitted Killer Evades Homicide Charges
The mother of Sinzae Reed is furious after a grand jury decided not to file homicide-related charges against the man who admitted to killing her 13-year-old son last year. After two days of testimony this week, a grand jury in Columbus, Ohio, instead decided to file felony charges against Krieg Allen Butler, 37, of tampering […]
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A Year After Tragedy Gripped Buffalo, Its Black Community Waits For Promises to be Kept
The Rev. Diann Holt lived in a food desert in Cold Springs, the Blackest community in Buffalo, New York, for most of her life — until a racist and deadly mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket last year. “I got sick of being deprived of what I should have,” she says about her […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Sinzae Reed Was Killed Six Months Ago. His Admitted Killer Remains Free.
It has been six months since a Black teenager was shot to death within feet of his home in Columbus, Ohio, and prosecutors are still investigating whether his admitted killer should be charged. Sinzae Reed’s family and the community remain frustrated months after the 13-year-old was gunned down in October at the Wedgewood Village Apartments. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Unarmed and Killed: Sinzae Reed’s Family Awaits Justice Four Months Later
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 […]
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 […]