00:11I am originally from Peru and I have been in the United States for 35 years.
00:17Ricky and Arthur were born in Chicago. They loved Chicago. Ricky loved Chicago.
00:27They had this sibling rivalry sometimes. They would fight like every brother's fight.
00:32And I used to tell them, you know, Arthur or Ricky, you gotta love your brother and you have to
00:37support each other
00:38and you have to stop fighting because when I am gone or your dad is gone, you only have each
00:43other.
00:44And little did I know that the first one to go would be one of them.
00:54On August 3rd, 2012, I received a call. It was 7.45 in the morning or so from Ricky's ex
01:05-girlfriend.
01:06And she was my favorite. So I thought, oh, they got back together. So I was sort of thrilled about
01:11it.
01:12I said, hi, how are you? You know, nice to hear from you.
01:15And then she said, Mrs. Spike, I call you because I have to tell you.
01:19And I said, what's going on?
01:21He said, Ricky was shot. And then I said, no.
01:25You know, it doesn't sound right. So I said, no.
01:28And then she said, Mrs. Spike, he's dead. He was shot multiple times.
01:34So I basically collapsed. I fell. And I said, what hospital?
01:45Because I thought, no, maybe she's confused.
01:48I drove to the hospital and Arthur was already there.
01:55And he didn't even want to touch me.
01:58And he's, he's, he was just with his face down.
02:06And there were so many tears streaming down to the floor.
02:12I had never seen that before.
02:14He was just sitting in silence.
02:23And then I saw an article on the internet saying a man was shot.
02:28multiple times in Logan Square.
02:33And, and then I said, that wasn't a man.
02:37That was my son.
02:39That was my son.
02:40That was not a man.
03:02Somebody had mentioned that it was gang related.
03:05And then I said, no, it wasn't gang related.
03:07It can't be gang related.
03:08My, my son wasn't a gang member.
03:11You know, he was a pretty healthy, you know, popular kid.
03:14He loved playing football and basketball.
03:17He had a lot of friends.
03:19Why was my son killed by somebody he didn't know?
03:22Why did these people have so much hate in their hearts?
03:26That they don't really value anybody's life.
03:34I found out that 80% of all these people that are shot every year,
03:39in average, 80% are innocent bystanders.
03:48No child is born bad.
03:51And if you don't give these children love later in life,
03:55it's going to be hard for them to understand the value of their lives.
04:00I have found a lot of kids who basically have been neglected all their lives,
04:05you know.
04:05And then I felt, in a way, bad that I didn't see that before.
04:10But I also know that while we have this sea of guns in this town,
04:17things are only going to get worse.
04:26You know, we're not criminals.
04:28We're just common people who were affected by gun violence.
04:33We know that we have force as survivors.
04:36So we need to be able to channel that power
04:39to convince others in the community
04:41who were not affected by gun violence
04:44that guns can only hurt our community.
04:49To find these laws to remain the way they are,
04:52it's allowing our kids to be killed at any point in time.
04:56Let the girls die!
04:58He's up!
04:58Let the girls die!
05:00He's up!
05:00Let the girls die!
05:01He's up!
05:02All I can do is fight for a better life for everybody else
05:06through my efforts.
05:09And that's what I do.
05:10I fight every day.
05:12I support anything that can improve the lives of others in this town.
05:17Because this is a beautiful town.
05:21But it is a town who is wounded.
05:25It is pointed.
05:39It is a town that tookongs into the maiden collection to death.
