‘Bullets just came from nowhere’: Fourth of July weekend gun violence kills at least 17, including 7-year-old-girl

As many Chicagoans were celebrating the Fourth of July with barbecues and after-dinner fireworks, relatives of Natalia Wallace were experiencing the worst day of their lives.

The 7-year-old girl was one of at least 80 people shot, at least 17 of those fatally, across the city during the violent holiday weekend, starting Thursday afternoon. Gunfire erupted outside her relative’s home Saturday on the West Side, and she became the latest in a horrific string of children whose lives have been taken away by gun violence in Chicago.

“Bullets just came from nowhere,” Natalia’s grandmother, Linda Rogers, said Sunday afternoon from the site of the shooting in the Austin community. “Whoever did it, I wish they’d come forward.

“I came out here and my grandbaby (was) lying on the ground,” Rogers said as she started to cry. “I couldn’t do nothing. My baby was lying on that ground. It didn’t take a minute.”

Despite the addition of some 1,200 police officers to the streets this holiday weekend, Natalia’s death comes as Chicago continues to struggle with an especially harsh toll of violence that has continued to take the lives of children and other innocent lives.

The weekend’s other young shooting victims included a 14-year-old boy and three others who have not yet been identified. They were killed Saturday night in Englewood after four masked gunmen opened fire at a large gathering, according to police. Four others were injured in the mass shooting, including an 11-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy.

This marked the third consecutive week that young children have been killed in gun violence. A 20-month-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were killed in separate shootings last weekend. A week earlier, five children were fatally shot, including Mekhi James, a 3-year-old boy who was shot while riding in a car with his father.