On Nov. 9, University of Chicago graduate student Shaoxiong “Dennis” Zheng was fatally shot during a robbery that occurred near the campus. Just three weeks later, Temple University senior Samuel Collington suffered the same tragic fate just two blocks from campus. Days later, Columbia University graduate student Davide Giri was fatally stabbed in the abdomen as he was jogging. Then, in January, Brianna Kupfer, a University of California at Los Angeles graduate student, was slain while working at a furniture store in Los Angeles.
Four promising lives ended in just moments. These random instances of violence, which occurred in major American cities and to students attending four of the most prominent urban universities in the nation, are indicative of the larger challenge facing our country.
We are officially at a crisis point.
