Dwyane Wade's cousin shot dead in Chicago; Donald Trump evokes death to troll for votes
Update: Two brothers have been arrested Sunday in the death of Nykea Aldridge, Chicago police said Sunday morning.
A cousin of basketball star Dwyane Wade was fatally shot in Chicago on Friday afternoon, reportedly while she was pushing her baby’s stroller near an elementary school.
Nykea Aldridge, 32, was reportedly registering her four children for school when two men opened fire on an unidentified man accompanying her, a spokesman for the family told the Chicago Tribune. The baby was not injured, police said.
Aldridge is the daughter of Wade’s mother’s sister.
Wade, a native of Chicago, recently signed with the Bulls. This is not the first time his family has been impacted by gun violence: In 2012, his nephew, Darin Johnson, was shot in Chicago along with five others, one fatally. He has been outspoken against gun violence, telling ESPN one day before his cousin was killed that “it’s something that we can start a conversation on, something we can start the work today and hopefully, eventually we can stop it.”
Chicago Police Department Deputy Chief James Jones called Aldridge “an innocent party to this senseless shooting,” according to the Tribune. Jones said in a news conference Friday that police are “interviewing a number of subjects.”
Aldridge herself posted about gun violence on Facebook.
The news mainly prompted an outpouring of support for Wade and his family.
Chicago has been at the center of the gun crisis in the U.S. There have been over 2,700 people shot so far in 2016 (compared to nearly 3,000 for all of 2015), and over 450 of those victims have died according to the Chicago Tribune. The city’s ongoing violence has become a hot-button national political issue among both Democrats and Republicans.
And then there is Donald Trump. He tweeted about the shooting early Saturday.
Trump has alleged that Hillary Clinton only cares about African Americans to get their votes, although it’s unclear what he thinks this tweet is other than that. Additionally, he spelled Wade’s name wrong. He fixed the spelling later but left the sentiment up.