‘Over the years, I’ll say I know maybe 20 people who have been shot.’

A lifelong resident of West Garfield Park, Caprisha Norfleet, 28, stands with her sons, 6-year-old Cornell Moses Jr. and 10-year-old Camarion Linzy, after school at Genevieve Melody Elementary School. Norfleet lost a boyfriend to gun violence and is looking to raise her sons in another city far from the West Side. (Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times)

The dismissal bell rang at Genevieve Melody STEM Elementary School in West Garfield Park on a recent afternoon and children streamed out of the blond brick building. Cornell Moses Jr., 6, bounded out a doorway, stopped to give a school aide a hug, then sprinted across the sidewalk to his mother and older brother, 10-year-old Camarion Linzy. 

Caprisha Norfleet called to her sons as they chased each other down the sidewalk: “Run over here!”