Two brothers who were on parole for prior criminal activity have been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of the cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade, Chicago police announced Sunday.
Darwin Sorrells Jr., 26, and Derren Sorrells, 22, also were charged with attempted murder in Friday’s shooting. They appeared in court Sunday and were ordered held without bail.
Nykea Aldridge, a 32-year-old mother of four, was pushing her baby in a stroller near a school where she’d planned to register her children when she was shot in the head and arm. She wasn’t the intended target, Cmdr. Brendan Deenihan said at a news conference Sunday, but rather a driver who had just dropped off passengers in the neighborhood.
There is video of the incident, Deenihan said, but no weapon was recovered and police don’t know where the weapon is.
Chicago has been in the throes of a major uptick in gun violence this year, largely centered in a few South and West Side neighborhoods, after years of seeing declines. This July alone, there were 65 homicides — the most for that month since 2006.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the suspects are an example of the city’s problem with repeat offenders, which he has spoken about frequently in recent months. Darwin Sorrells was sentenced to six years in prison in January 2013 on a gun charge and was released early on parole. Derren Sorrells is a known gang member who is also on parole for motor vehicle theft and escape, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, adding he has six felony arrests on his record.
“They don’t care who they shoot and they don’t fear the consequences,” Johnson said, noting as he has in the past that about 1,400 people are driving 85 percent of the city’s gun violence. He added that the city has gotten very good at predicting who will be the perpetrators and the victims of gun violence.
Dozens of people gathered at a Chicago church Sunday for a prayer service to remember Aldridge. Her parents, sister, nieces and nephews wept as they spoke about the woman they said was a gifted writer and “fighter of the family.”
Wade, whose charitable organization, Wade’s World Foundation, does community outreach in the Chicago area, signed with the Chicago Bulls in July after 13 years with the Miami Heat. He and his mother, pastor Jolinda Wade, participated Thursday via satellite in a town hall meeting in Chicago on gun violence hosted by ESPN.
Wade has reacted to his cousin’s shooting only online, tweeting Friday: “My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough.”
Wade also tweeted Saturday morning: “The city of Chicago is hurting. We need more help& more hands on deck. Not for me and my family but for the future of our world. The YOUTH!” adding in a following tweet, “These young kids are screaming for help!!! #EnoughIsEnough.”
It is not the first time Dwyane Wade’s family in Chicago has been affected by gun violence. His nephew, Darin Johnson, was shot twice in the leg in 2012 but recovered.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence sidestepped questions Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union” about the flow of guns into Illinois from his state. Chicago police have said a fifth of the guns used in Chicago crimes are from Indiana. When asked about it, the Republican vice presidential candidate instead brought up failing schools in Chicago and his running mate Donald Trump’s pledge to create jobs.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
So the criminals go next door to Indiana to steal guns to use in additional crimes in Chicago and you still blame the gun? Even if they were bought legally, you would still blame the gun? What if the criminals were going to Minnesota or Wisconsin to obtain their guns, would you still blame the guns? Personally, I think we have a problem with criminals!!!!!!
What caught my eye was the use of the phrase “gun violence”. The overwhelming number of gun owners do not kill other people. Same as over whelming numbers of police do not kill others and none engage in drive by shootings. Guns become dangerous when they are in the hands of the wrong people. And where is the Nation of Islam active in Chicago? In the neighborhoods mentioned? And what sect do they represent? The sunnis or the shiites? Maybe all the black on black violence is really the same violence that exists in the ME. A civil war between two religious sects. A power struggle to be the boss? Remember the Crips and and bloods gang violence a few years ago? Who ended that? The police, not the Rainbow coalition. Does the rainbow coalition allow whites in it?
——–and because TRUMP tweeted a message about the incident——he did not do the tweet just right and has received flak about that. He did better than Obama, HRC, and the other 2 candidates. Not a peep out of either.
Pavement apes strike again.
Think we should have another
Alcatraz. And not let the
Criminals out early. Make prison
A place they don’t want to go back to.
We treat criminals with kid gloves.
And obama let so many out of
Prison…its no wonder we have so much
Crime.
Well, what the hell, Chicago needs stricter gun controls. Oh, wait, gun and ammunition sales are prohibited in Chicago and Cook County. Where are these criminals getting their guns? I don’t know? Maybe on the black market or they steal them! We don’t need stricter gun control laws. What we need is a reformed justice system and don’t let the thugs out until they serve their FULL sentence. Because prisons are overcrowded lets release killers, rapists, and sexual deviants, but those with MINOR offenses, keep them locked up. The justice system is FAILING our society.
Letting violent criminals with multiple convictions and felonies out of jail and prison, sounds a lot like what the President is doing with terrorist. Can somebody please take control of all this non-sense? It is getting ridiculous.