NEW TONIGHT AT TEN:
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A MAJOR MARCH AND RALLY CALLING FOR AN END TO GUN VIOLENCE THIS LONG HOLIDAY WEEKEND.
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HUNDREDS TURNED OUT AT SAINT SABINA CHURCH, AS POLICE REVEALED THEIR PLANS TO STOP THE
SHOOTING THAT HAS KILLED OR WOUNDED SO MANY PEOPLE.
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NBC-5’S NATALIE MARTINEZ JOINS US LIVE TO BEGIN OUR COVERAGE…NATALIE.
The Saint Sabina faith community gathered in a march Sunday to protest recent Chicago and nation-wide violence.
Especially with a warm holiday weekend approaching, many expressed concern for a uptick in violence and a demand to find a solution.
"We call people to draw the line and say, 'we got this,'" Pastor at St. Sabina Rev. Michael Pfleger said. "We gotta demand that July Fourth is a weekend of peace because we made it so. Stop killing us!"
Those marching the neighborhood around the church held up pictures of those they have lost to Chicago violence.
The demand for justice comes after several children's lives have been lost to gun violence over the past couple weeks.
"Chicago kids matter. They gotta get a chance to show up," Jerry Dixon, father at the Sunday march, said.
Earlier in the day, Saint Sabina held a visitation service for 13-year-old Amaria Jones who was fatally shot in the neck by a stray bullet while inside her Austin home Father's Day weekend.
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"She was only 13 and definitley had a good life ahead of her. She was loving, kind, cute and everything," Jones' God-brother Shaquille Barnes said. "She didn't deserve anything that happened to her. She was a kid. She wanted to be a lawyer, care for everybody in the world."
The massive street mural was painted Wednesday on West 78th Place alongside the South Side church.
In large letters, the words "demand justice" can be seen from above or on the ground in a street outside Chicago's Saint Sabina church.
The mural comes after weeks of protests across the city demanding justice for victims of racism, but it also comes as the city grapples with a spike in violence.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked on Sunday that shooter looking to "pull the trigger" this weekend, to think twice about the lives of the young men and women in Chicago.
"Think about that, young men, before you pick up a firearm," Lightfoot said. "Think about that before you pull the trigger. Value your own life, but also value the life of others, and particularly our children."
