Almost every neighborhood has that excessively grumpy man or woman, maybe an irritable recluse, whom children purposely avoid.
If by chance kids do end up crossing paths with them, or accidentally throw a ball or fly their drone toy airplane onto their lawn, the end result is usually nothing more than a scolding, a string of expletives or shaken fists.
Children never expect — should never even imagine — being shot to death for acting like a child.
But that’s what neighbors told the Sun-Times happened to 9-year-old Serabi Medina after she purchased an ice cream for herself and her father near their Portage Park apartment Saturday night.
Michael Goodman, 43, had previously grumbled about the racket some kids in the neighborhood made and confronted Serabi’s father about the noise before shooting the girl in the head in the vestibule of her building, the neighbors said.
Cook County prosecutors didn’t mention any noise complaints in court Tuesday at Goodman’s bond hearing. But they did say Goodman came out of his apartment building carrying his gun, ignored Serabi’s father when he asked Goodman what he was doing, made a beeline to the girl — and gunned her down.
It all happened just as Serabi was making her way to the front of her home after her father, who was outside with friends, heard a gunshot ring out in the area and ordered her to immediately go inside with her scooter.
Goodman’s alleged actions are beyond depraved and stomach-churning. Even if it wasn’t the sounds of children that allegedly set him off, what could a 9-year-old have possibly done to spark such a despicable reaction? Who could have predicted it, from a man who worked as a computer programmer and had no criminal background? (Goodman had a license to carry his gun.)
More and more children are succumbing to gun violence in our country. Serabi’s murder is appalling on its own. That Serabi lost her mother in a shooting in Austin five years earlier only compounds the tragedy, serving as more evidence that being struck and killed by a bullet is far from an anomaly.
Thankfully, it’s still rare for families to lose more than one member to gun violence, but how long before it becomes the norm, with our nation awash in firearms that can quickly turn a fit of anger into a violent tragedy?
Consider that It was less than a week before Serabi’s murder when 21-year-old Kanesha Gaines was killed in a mass shooting on the West Side. Her mother, Natasha Graham, had already lost a teenaged son when he was gunned down in 2019.
After her son’s murder, Graham’s worst fear was of losing another child the same way. In seconds early on a weekend morning, the unthinkable came true.
More parents fear children being shot
Such fears among parents are not uncommon, especially since gun deaths of children and teenagers increased by 50% between 2019 and 2021, according to an April analysis by the Pew Research Center.
Nearly half of parents in the U.S. with children under 18 have some worry about their children being shot, the April report noted, pointing to a 2022 Pew survey.
Serabi’s mother, 29-year-old Miranda Blanca, was also shot in the head in the fall of 2018, the Sun-Times reported at the time. The man Blanca was with at the time also suffered a gunshot wound to his left shoulder. He was able to grab the shooter, but the man was able to break free and fled, police said.
No one has been charged with Blanca’s murder.
Goodman, who was shot above his left eye with his own gun during the struggle with Serabi’s father, is being held without bail for the girl’s murder.
But no Chicagoan should feel much relief.
When a 9-year-old child is gunned down right in front of her father as he watches in horror, there’s nothing to feel but outrage.
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