Some American cities that have been severely shaken by the wave of protests following the death of Minneapolis citizen George Floyd at the end of May, including Atlanta, have now been experiencing a significant spike in gun violence, according to police reports. And it is not only adults that often turn out to be victims of deadly shootings.
At least 16 children have been shot, some of them fatally, since the start of June in several cities across the United States which have recently experienced a “surge in crime”, the Daily Caller claims, citing a compilation of media reports on child shootings.
One of the most recent incidents was the killing of Secoriea Turner, a 8-year-old black resident of Atlanta, who was shot dead on the Fourth of July weekend while she was in a car with her mum. The incident reportedly took place near the area where Rayshard Brooks was shot dead by an Atlanta police officer last month when trying to avoid arrest.
Following the killing of the girl and another incident in the area, Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in Georgia and authorized the deployment of up to 1,000 National Guard troops to respond to “recent trend of lawlessness”. Interim Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant told local Channel 2 on Monday that the recent weekend in Atlanta was “the most violent” one he could recall throughout his 30-year career, with a record number of homicides reported in June since 2003.
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