On Saturday at least five people were gunned down on the streets of Chicago as the violence in that city raged on. One of the men who died was 34-year-old Ronnie Chambers. He was the last surviving child of Shirley Chambers who has now lost all four of her children to gun violence.
WLS-TV sat down with Shirley as she grieved and tried to understand all of the horror that has beset her family. “Right now, I’m totally lost because Ronnie was my only surviving son,” Chambers said.
Ronnie’s life was lost after he suffered a gun shot wound to the head while sitting in a parked car. A fellow passenger in the automobile was wounded. Chambers said of her son, “He was trying to change… He would do anything for you. He would give you the shirt off his back.”
Shirley Chambers’ oldest child, Carlos, was shot dead in 1995 at the age of 18 by a high school classmate after an argument. Following that, Shirley’s daughter Latoya was shot in the head and killed at the age of 15, allegedly by a boy who was only 13-years-old. In July of 2005, her son Jerome was murdered via gunshot just feet away from where his sister’s life was taken.
Chambers stated that she isn’t bitter or angry even while trying to cope with the loss of all of her children. “They took my only child. I have nobody right now. That’s my only baby,” she said.
In 2012, Chicago’s homicide count topped 500 souls. In the early 90’s that terrible number was nearly double as the city averaged close to 900.
