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A teenage wrestling champion was video chatting with her sister about Halloween costumes minutes before she was shot while parked in her car outside her Chicago home on Saturday night.
Hours later, her family demanded justice as gun violence continues to wreak havoc in the city.
Chicago police say Melissa de la Garza, 18, who had just graduated from high school and was heading to college from the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago, was sitting in her car around 8:30 p.m. when she was shot several times. . in the torso.
Relatives told WLS that Melissa’s father rushed outside the house after hearing the deafening gunshots. Local police arrived at the scene a few minutes later.
“He saw my sister sitting in the car. He was shouting her name and she was not responding, ”Isabel de la Garza said of her father’s last meeting with her older sister, according to a video interview shared by the media outlet. “My dad opened the door and just held it.”
Isabel de la Garza was the last person to speak to Melissa before she was shot and rushed to a local hospital, where she ultimately died from her injuries.
“She looked so happy on that FaceTime call,” the sister said at a press conference on Sunday.
According to Chicago Sun-Times, at least three people were killed as a result of gun violence on Friday alone, just a day before Melissa de la Garza was killed. Among the 10 other people injured in the city that day were a Chicago police officer and a 15-year-old boy.
Jose de la Garza, Melissa’s heartbroken father, described the teenager as a ‘warrior princess’ during the moving press conference. She had once been the sole wrestler at Solorio Academy High School and was heading to the School of the Art Institute in Chicago on a scholarship, he said.
“It’s hard to put into words the loss we feel, for someone to take my 18 year old warrior princess away from me,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense for someone to come and take it away for no reason. “
Gun violence has killed more than 15,000 people in the United States since the start of the year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, putting 2021 close to 2020, which has been the deadliest on record for gun violence since. at least two decades. , with approximately 20,000 gun-related deaths, excluding suicides.
In May, as the death toll in Chicago rose 34% from the same period a year earlier, Mayor Lori Lightfoot pledged his administration would allocate resources to 15 high crime areas to reduce violence. in all the city.
“We owe it to all of our residents, in every neighborhood, to restore peace and vibrancy,” Lightfoot said at a May 28 press conference on Chicago’s summer public safety strategy, according to a video shared by WLS .
Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. David Brown said at the time that it was essential to address the root causes of the violence.
“It’s not more law enforcement capacity,” he said at the time. “It gets more partners to tackle some of the root causes of violence.
Chicago Police said they were looking for “an unidentified male offender who fled the scene on foot” after they shot Melissa de la Garza. Her grandmother told WLS she was shot seven times and alleged three suspects were seen fleeing the scene in a nearby alley.
“It’s a nightmare,” Clara de la Garza told WLS in Spanish. “Who is going to fill this hole?” It’s amazing how this city is consumed with violence.
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