There were 82 people shot in Chicago over the weekend. One of them was 17-year-old Marcel Pearson, who was set to begin his freshman year at Western Illinois University. Instead he was shot down by a gunman in his South Side neighborhood.
The shooting happened around 10 p.m. as Marcel walked around his neighborhood park, according to the Chicago Tribune. A gunman in a white van pulled up to the park and began shooting. Marcel was shot in the back and chest and died instantly. Other victims included a 15-year-old boy, who was shot in the leg and survived.
Marcel’s friends described him as “humble” and said that he was excited to begin college. “That’s all he was talking about. He was ready to go off to school,” a close friend told the Tribune.
His mentor, Jillian Carew, was ready to take Marcel to his freshman orientation at Western Illinois on Thursday. She told the Tribune that she urged her students to avoid the violence in their neighborhoods. Marcel was a kid who did just that, Carew said.
As his aunt, Tamika Anderson, remarked, “The same neighborhood that raised him killed him.”
Read more at the Chicago Tribune.