Milwaukee, WI

Disgusting.

It’s the only word that seems to perfectly describe the tragic event that claimed the life of one person Monday night. At roughly 8:20 p.m., a 26 year old man was walking down N. 29th St. An SUV pulled up and as many as five assailants opened fire, but it wasn’t the young man’s life that was lost that night.

Shootings and drive-bys are nothing new to Milwaukee, especially for that particular neighborhood. In reality, they are almost regular occurrences, but reality hits so much harder when the only victim is a 4 year old girl named Jasmine Owens.

Mayor Tom Barrett said it best:

“A 4-year-old girl died last night. A 4-year-old girl was shot and killed last night in our city. … Some gutless thug decided he would solve his problem by shooting a 4-year-old girl. What a tough guy. He can brag about that to all of his buddies, that he took out a 4-year-old girl.”

What troubles me the most is not that these men set out to kill someone that night. It is the fact that they couldn’t be bothered to drive around the block one more time, or even wait until their target was another 10 steps forward. How anyone can hold so little value for the life of a child is utterly beyond my comprehension.

Some will say that Jasmine Owens was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. I dread to think that this type of violence has a right place or a right time.

Jasmine Owens