Community advocates and residents gathered in the North Lawndale neighborhood Monday to raise awareness about the death of a 1-year-old boy found dead on the West Side Thursday.
Zaiden A. Collins, of Berwyn, suffered blunt force trauma to the abdomen inside a residence in the North Lawndale neighborhood’s 1300 block of South Kedzie Avenue, police said. The death was ruled a homicide, but as of Monday afternoon, the investigation was ongoing. There are no updates beyond the original statement that Zaiden was put down for a nap and then found unresponsive.
Violence Interrupters founder Tio Hardiman, longtime anti-violence advocate, called for more awareness from the media and a hastened police investigation at a news conference, where he gazed upon the small audience of reporters with conviction.
“Where’s the outrage? Why is nobody making any noise about what happened to this little baby?” Hardiman asked.
He said he heard about Zaiden’s death through word-of-mouth within the Lawndale community. When the incident received little to no media attention in the days following, he said he knew he needed to do something.
Hardiman told the Tribune that violence in the city’s South and West sides is too often forgotten.
Shawn Childs, a mentor at House of Hope and leader of No Kids Die in the Chi has been shot three times and in and out of prison. He, like other violence interrupters, is using the trauma of his past to provide culturally competent care for high-risk individuals.
“I was one of those kids growing up, from Cabrini-Green,” he told the Tribune. “I decided I had the knowledge and wisdom to help a kid not go through what I went through.”
But he said not enough people are stepping up to help.
A group of about a dozen community members and activists gathered in a triangle in front of the Rev B.T. Little Community Center, feet away from the residence where Zaiden’s homicide occurred. As they took turns speaking, others in the group nodded or cried out in agreement. Many looked down at their feet.
Mother and longtime South Austin resident Zerlina Smith-Members said the community hasn’t been able to get in touch with Zaiden’s mother. Smith-Members runs a nonprofit called Mothers Who Care. She is a mother herself, but said she takes care of hundreds of other children, fighting to provide them with mental health services, school supplies and other resources.
She said she couldn’t sleep when she found out about the blunt force trauma inflicted on the 1-year-old. She said she can’t stop thinking about his mother.
“We know, wherever she is, she’s not sleeping,” Smith-Members said.
Eric Russell, District 6 member-elect of the Chicago Police District Council, said incidents like these occur because of a lack of mental health services in the city. He demanded a thorough investigation into why the innocent child’s life was taken.
“This heinous murder of a 1-year-old baby … it represents a bigger picture of our city. There is a spiritual and a moral decay in our city,” he said.
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North Lawndale resident Jermaine J. Sanders said that this type of violence affects the whole community. Sanders has lost family to violence. He has a 5-year-old daughter, and Zaiden’s death reminds him of what could happen at any moment to his own child.
Smith-Members said the solution to the violence in the South and West sides of Chicago is all-inclusive, wraparound financial services to help entire families — mothers, fathers, grandparents and caregivers. It’s not easy to take care of a child, she said, but it’s even harder to do so without support.
Childs wore a black No Kids Die sweatshirt. He said No Kids Die teams were involved in controlling recent teen violence in the South Loop. He reiterated the need for early investment in these young people, and not just when they flock downtown.
“Why do we have to make a fuss to get noticed? Why do our communities always have to scream, kick and push to get help?” he asked.
North Lawndale residents walking by stopped to watch. Russell said that Zaiden’s death means elected officials must ask some bigger questions.
“This offers a trap door to the violence that plagues our city,” he said.
