In wake of cousin’s fatal shooting, Dwyane Wade speaks out
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago Bulls player Dwyane Wade posted on Twitter: “My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal.”
CHICAGO >> NBA star Dwyane Wade’s cousin was an innocent bystander, police said, pushing her baby in a stroller near a Chicago school where she intended to register her children when she was fatally shot Friday.
Nykea Aldridge’s famous relative, who grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs, tweeted to his nearly 6 million followers about her death, saying Friday it was an “act of senseless gun violence” and posting Saturday morning that Chicago needs “more help& more hands on deck.” Wade ended both days of tweets with the hashtag “EnoughIsEnough.”
The 32-year-old mother of four recently relocated to an area on the city’s South Side, her family said. She was near the school, which is about a mile and a half southwest of the University of Chicago, when two males walked up and fired shots at a third man but hit Aldridge in the head and arm. She wasn’t the intended target, police said.
Police said Saturday afternoon that two “people of interest” were being questioned by detectives but no one has been charged in the shooting. Authorities are investigating whether the encounter between the men was a robbery, possibly involving a driver from a ridesharing company, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Chicago has been plagued by gun violence for years, especially in a few South and West Side neighborhoods. This July alone, there were 65 homicides — the most that month since 2006.
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.
“My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough,” he tweeted Friday.
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.”
Outside the emergency room where Aldridge was pronounced dead, Jolinda Wade clutched her sister and spoke for the family as mourners stood in a circle holding hands and praying. She said she’d participated in the town hall meeting “never knowing that the next day we would be the ones that would actually be living and experiencing it.”
“We’re still going to try to help and empower people like the one who senselessly shot my niece in the head,” Jolinda Wade said. “We’re going to try to help these people to transform their minds and give them a different direction.”
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.
Chicago had recorded 381 homicides by the end of July, up 30 percent from the same period of 2015. Its murder rate is higher than the more populous cities of New York and Los Angeles.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has spoken about the city’s violence, and tweeted about Aldridge’s death Saturday morning. He first posted, “Dwyane Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!,” and then tweeted, “My condolences to Dwyane Wade and his family, on the loss of Nykea Aldridge. They are in my thoughts and prayers.”
Family members are caring for Aldridge’s baby, who wasn’t hurt.
12 responses to “In wake of cousin’s fatal shooting, Dwyane Wade speaks out”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
What a surprise! The candidate who suffers from narcissistic personality disorder thinks the tragic death of a total stranger is all about him.
What is he speaking out against? It is his own ilk killing each other. How do you stop it Dwyane? “Chicago has been plagued by gun violence for years” Who is that “gunviolence’? It is Blacks murdering mostly Blacks.
I remember reading that a Chicago BLM activist Jessica Disu and community organizer “We need to abolish the police period….disarm the police.” Now they more than likely want the police to investigate this and catch these criminals. So where is the BLM group on this probably a black on black crime. Ah yeah it doesn’t fit into their agenda. Where is the basketball players saying something on this. AGAIN it DOESN’T fit their AGENDA!!!
The NBA players are all full of it. They don’t want nothing to do with the ghetto and are only lips moving. What about those not related to them. Nothing!
What happened to BLM in Chicago. Wade having second thoughts about signing with the Bulls?
For a man that lived by the motto of get rich at everyone else’s expense (such as ripping off the many workers and contractors that built his Vegas casinos and hotel, many of whom lost a lot even businesses and jobs) to say that he cares and will pray about this family’s tragic loss is worst of pandering. And coming from a man that accused his opponent of doing such and then doing so on the tragedy of a family far removed from his glass building life is ironic.
Did O and/or hiLIARy say or do anything yet?
What’s the State Department hiding? What’s Loretta Lynch hiding? What’s Barrack Obama hiding?
They might as well come clean. They can run but they can’t hide.
Wade is full of himself before tragedy struck his family and this unfortunate even doesn’t change my opinion of him one iota.
So much for the BLM foolishness.
Especially in NO-bama’s hometown.
BLM doesn’t care because it was a black person who killed another black person. Now if the person was white and killed this innocent woman then BLM, Obama and Hillary would be all over it. Do they not know that by doing this they are alienating at least fifty percent of the population?
It was a bullet that killed Wade’s cousin but it wasn’t a white cop that did the shooting. where is Al Sharpton and the Black Lives Matter organization when a Black kills a Black? Apparently Mr. Sharpton and the Black Lives Matter organization travel and peddle their false rhetoric on a one way street. Many Blacks don’t seem to realize that for every transgression committed by a Black, thousands of good, law abiding and respectful Black people take the rap and unwarranted discrimination. Rich Black athletes and businessmen need to take control via a common coalition and invest in their young peoples future with schools, hospitals, clinics and programs that will get young Blacks in disadvantaged areas (like in Chicago) out of gangs and into a decent future. Clean out your backyard first then ask for equitable considerations. It can be done.