WEST ENGLEWOOD — An antiviolence effort dubbed "Operation Wake Up" drew neighbors Wednesday evening to the block where a 6-year-old girl had been shot the day before, with the local alderman saying, "This isn't a South Side issue — this is a Chicago issue."
Earlier, that alderman, Raymond Lopez of the 15th Ward, had called on his City Hall colleagues to attend Wednesday's meeting in the wake of the child's shooting, Tacarra Morgan, who was hit in her stomach in the 6000 block of South Paulina Road on Tuesday.
Ald. Deb Mell, whose North Side 33rd Ward includes Ravenswood Manor, Avondale, Albany Park and Irving Park, took Lopez up on the offer.
"I live 14 miles to the north. In a way, it's like a world apart," Mell said, though she added, "I think what happens in West Englewood, we feel it up north, too."
"We need to start supporting each other," Mell said.
Mell told DNAinfo that people across the city want the same things for their communities: "We want our kids to go out and play. This is horrific. This is unfathomable to me."
The child is expected to recover, according to police.
Area South CAPS coordinator Glenn Brooks, who moderated the "Operation Wake Up" meeting, said, "We've had a 5-year-old, a 7-year-old, and a 6-year-old shot this month in the 7th District" and "if we don't come together, we'll be here for a fourth time because another baby had been shot."
"We want to cry for a movie, but we need people to cry in our streets," Brooks said.
The meeting was also attended by Englewood District Cmdr. Larry Watson. Activist Ja'Mal Green told the group, "It's time to put the work in to get these killers off of the streets."
Aleta Clark, a West Englewood resident wearing a T-shirt that read "#HugsNotSlugs, brought nine neighborhood children to the event.
"We need to start holding our own people accountable. We are the reason our neighborhoods are the way they are," Clark said. "This our home. If we're going to stick together, we need to stick together."
A West Englewood resident who identified himself as "Brother Hall" said he lost his son to gun violence. He knows all too well what Tacarra's family is going through, he said.
"This is madness. This is a state of emergency and the government needs to deal with this," Hall said.
West Englewood resident Maxine Kidd, who lives on the block Tacarra was shot, said she was sitting on her porch when the shooting occurred.
"At first, I thought it was a firecracker. They said it was a baby that got shot," Kidd said. "I don't want to shoot anybody, but I would love for someone to shoot whoever did this."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
