Mother allegedly stabbed 5-year-old daughter to death in Chicago during another blood-soaked weekend



The mother of a 5-year-old girl in Chicago has been charged with stabbing her daughter to death during another blood-soaked weekend in the Windy City.

What are the details?

Simone Austin, 27, was charged with first-degree murder in connection with 5-year-old Serenity Arrington's death on Saturday, according to a report by WBBM-TV.

Police said they received a call to the East Garfield Park home on Chicago's west side, and when they arrived, they found Serenity suffering from multiple stab wounds. Neighbors had reportedly been attempting to assist her before paramedics came to the scene.

The young girl was quickly transported to Stroger Hospital of Cook County, but she died a few minutes later.

Offender Charged with Murder of Five-Year-Old Victim on Sept. 26thOffender: Simone Austin, 27 ofChicago. Charges:… https://t.co/1w3aABF1zA
— Tom Ahern (@Tom Ahern)1601250858.0

WFLD-TV reported that Austin appeared to be waiting for officers when they arrived on the scene Saturday morning. Police arrested her immediately and took her into custody.

Neighbors said that the family had just moved into the area this summer and appeared to be happy. They were shocked to hear of the news, and thus far no motive has been assigned in the case.

"It's just sad, just out of nowhere. I seen her just yesterday and today in the morning she's gone. It's just sad," neighbor Jose Maljar said.

Austin is reportedly undergoing mental health evaluations, and detectives are looking into whether she had a history of mental illness.

What's the background?

The atrocity is another in a weekend that saw 49 people shot and seven killed in Chicago, as the city continues to experience a surge in violent crime this year.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that, according to police department statistics, shootings and murders are up 50% in Chicago from last year.

Through Sept. 20, there have been 560 murders in the city compared to 374 from the same time in 2019, and shootings are up to 2,300 compared to 1,500 last year.

After USPS carrier shot, Chicago postal workers threaten to stop delivering mail because it's too dangerous



Chicago postal workers have hinted that they could stop delivering mail because some neighborhoods are just too dangerous. The threat comes shortly after a USPS mail carrier was shot in Chicago while on the job.

On Friday, Chicago postal workers attended a rally with community organizers to demand that something be done about the violent crime that is plaguing the city. The night before, postal workers attended a prayer vigil near the crime scene in the Burnside neighborhood where a USPS mail carrier was recently shot.

Mack Julion, the president of the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers, instructed postal workers to stop delivering mail if they don't feel safe.

"Any letter carrier who does not feel safe in any one of these communities then they are not to deliver mail and customers have to pick up their mail," Julion said. "We are not going to have another situation where the letter carrier is shot down."

At around 11:35 a.m. on Sept. 10, a 24-year-old USPS mail carrier was shot four times during a drive-by shooting while on the job. Authorities don't believe that the mail carrier was the intended target of the shooting.

According to WLS-TV, Chicago Fire Department officials said the woman was critically injured. She remains hospitalized because of the injuries suffered during the shooting.

The Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is offering $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect who carried out the shooting.

Postal Worker shot several times while delivering mail in Chicago https://t.co/gfh9UnkwVE
— Dowop Robinson (@Dowop Robinson)1599793615.0


🚨🚨Official #USPIS reward poster below for today’s shooting of a #Chicago #USPS Letter Carrier. Requesting wide diss… https://t.co/slRDDCtO8c
— USPIS - Chicago (@USPIS - Chicago)1599795230.0

A day after the postal worker was shot, a USPS employee was shot with a paintball gun in Chicago's South Side.

"That's a traumatic experience, especially when you had a coworker shot the day before," Julion said. "It's not funny, these are federal employees...our members are at work trying to do their job trying to support their families, trying to serve the community."

In March, a 47-year-old USPS employee was shot while delivering mail in Brighton Park. The man, who was one of two people shot during the attack, was struck in the head. The man told WLS that he feels fortunate that he wasn't more seriously injured.

Isis Edmond, a Chicago postal worker for seven years, said she has personally experienced shootings while delivering mail.

"You pray. Pray that god protects you," Edmond told WLS. "But you try to be aware of your surroundings, just look out, but sometimes, in her case, you can't see everything."

Shootings are so common in Chicago that Edmond has a process.

"I've been delivering mail and gunshots rung out. I've had to run to my truck and stay in my truck until everything deescalated," Edmond said. "Contact 911 of course. Contact my supervisor to tell them what's going on. Then leave the area. That's the process."

At the time of publication, 30 people were shot in Chicago this weekend, two of them fatal.

Homicides in Chicago have spiked over 50%; murders have already surpassed 2019's total. Chicago gun violence is on pace to reach alarming numbers not seen since the 1990s.

Homicides spike over 50% in Chicago; murders already surpass 2019 total – could reach numbers not seen since the 1990s



With 3 1/2 months left in 2020, Chicago has already surpassed 2019's total amount of homicides. The latest crime stats out of Chicago are alarming, with murders and shootings spiking more than 50%.

As of Sept. 14, Cook County medical examiner's office recorded its 677th homicide of 2020, eclipsing last year's total of 675, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Cook County, the second-most populated county in the nation with about 5.1 million residents, is on track to have more than 900 homicides this year, an eye-opening figure that hasn't been seen in decades.

This extreme level of violence hasn't been experienced in Chicago since the 1990s. In 2016, 762 people were murdered, an increase of 58% from 2015. There were 1,141 homicides in 1994, 855 in 1993, 943 in 1992, 928 in 1991, according to the Chicago Police Department.

Shootings were the cause of 86% of Chicago's murders this year. Shootings also increased by 52% compared to 2019 statistics. Making the dire situation even more heartbreaking is that dozens of children have been shot. As of Aug. 3, there have been 38 juveniles who were shot and killed in Chicago.

Chicago suffered one of its worst mass shootings in recent times in July when 15 people were shot at a funeral on the city's South Side.

Despite the summer ending, the violence has not slowed down. Last weekend, 54 people were shot and 12 killed. As of Sept. 14, there were over 2,200 shootings; at the same time in 2019, there were 1,400 shootings.

The Cook County medical examiner's office stated that blacks made up 79% of 2020's homicide deaths, and 16% of the victims were Latino.

On Monday, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown expressed frustration that some of the criminals who were arrested over the Labor Day weekend had committed multiple felonies in the past.

"Violent offenders need to spend more time in jail in this city," Brown said. "They need to be held more accountable."

Brown noted that Chicago police had recovered over 7,400 guns, which is more than law enforcement have recovered in New York City and Los Angeles combined, according to USA Today.

Brown also pointed out that there is an increase in police officers being shot. He said that 55 Chicago police officers had been shot at in 2020, and 10 cops have been shot.

"There's not a comparable year. That's five times any previous year anyone can recall," Brown said of the police being shot. "We're risking everything."

On Sept. 9, Attorney General William Barr said that Operation Legend, a new law enforcement initiative against violent crime that partners federal agents with state and local police, has cut Chicago's homicide rate "in half."

"I am pleased to report that Operation Legend is working. Crime is down, and order is being restored to this great American city," Barr said during a news conference.

"The results of those actions speak for themselves," Barr said. "Over the first five weeks of Operation Legend in Chicago, murders dropped by 50% over the previous five weeks. August ultimately saw a 45% decrease in murders compared to July, and a 35% decrease compared to June."

Since July 22, the federal government has assigned 400 agents to Chicago in an effort to curb violent crime. The operation also granted more than $10 million to the Chicago Police Department to hire more officers and provide more technologically advanced equipment.

"Across 20 major cities, the murder rate at the end of June was on average 37% higher than it was at the end of May, according to Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis," The New York Times reported. Last year's increase for the same time period was 6%.

New York City has also endured a significant increase in violent crimes. In August, shootings more than doubled compared to 2019, and murders increased by nearly 50%, according to The New York Times.

"Since May, the city has recorded 791 shootings, a more than 140% increase over the same period in 2019. The 180 murders seen between May and August is a more than 51% increase compared to 2019," The New York Times reports.

Many factors could be increasing gun violence in the U.S., such as higher unemployment, civil unrest stemming from social justice protests, and the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.