Early this spring, Shamyia Ford Jennings, 17, walked with her cousin and a friend to a corner store in north St. Louis. Minutes later, she was in St. Louis Children’s Hospital with a bullet wound in left leg. Her friend had also been shot, but in the foot.
And a couple of summers ago, Devin Smith, 16, was playing basketball on the playground with family members when someone fired shots in his direction. His cousin was hit in the drive-by.
In a class therapy session at Emerson Academy Therapeutic School in the historic neighborhood known as The Ville, Smith and almost everyone else raised their hands when the counselor asked, “Who here knows someone who has been shot or killed?”
Gun violence in the city of St. Louis escalated this year. This past summer alone, 10 children were killed, most of them while engaging in daily routines. Check out the full story.
By Andrea Henderson, St. Louis Public Radio
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