Editorial: Another child shot dead in Pittsburgh is too many
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Sometimes being right is a terrible thing.
In June, the Tribune-Review presented an editorial headlined “De’Avry Thomas won’t be the last victim.”
That came after the death of an 18-month-old boy who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Downtown Pittsburgh while in a car with his mother.
Indeed, that toddler was not the last life lost to gun violence in Pittsburgh. He wasn’t even the last victim of gun violence that month.
Pittsburgh has been rocked by repeated explosions of violent crime, especially involving firearms. Reports of gun crimes and gun deaths have become the background noise of 2022. They are the alarm clock we wake up to each day.
This is the year when visiting Kennywood in the weeks leading to Halloween was disrupted by guns. People died going to work or waiting for a bus. People were even shot at a funeral.
On Dec. 1, another child was lost. Kaari Thompson, 4, a girl described by Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman Ebony Pugh as a hugger who liked making play food in preschool, was shot with her mother and another person in the 1500 block of Lincoln Avenue. Kaari’s death was announced the next day.
“There’s no reason a 4-year-old should be gunned down in our city — period,” Mayor Ed Gainey said Friday.
Gainey is absolutely right. But being right doesn’t make 4-year-olds safe from bullets. It doesn’t make toddlers safe in a car with Mom. It won’t make an Easter house party or an amusement park or a bus stop any safer.
“I’m going to do all I can to ensure this is the safest city in America,” Gainey added.
But words aren’t going to do it. Being right won’t either. It has to be action.
Is law enforcement the way to go? What about education or economic development? Social services and youth interventions? Do we need to address how the courts are handling bail or probation or juvenile detention?
Yes. Yes to all of it.
While “safest city in America” sounds great, right now it would be fine if preschoolers and toddlers and people at funerals weren’t being used for target practice. That doesn’t seem like it should be a high bar to clear, but in 2022 it is.
Gainey acknowledged it is a “bigger situation,” so that’s good. He also said it will take time.
“The problem didn’t arrive yesterday, and we won’t solve it tomorrow,” he said.
He’s not wrong, unfortunately.
That’s the terrible truth. We undoubtedly will have another child who will not be the last to die in our region from gun violence, and we wish we weren’t right about that.