Gun Violence Hits Home For Hemmert
• We are sending our best wishes to Terri Hemmert, legendary longtime fixture on Audacy Triple A WXRT/Chicago, whose recent birthday trip to New Orleans Jazz Fest was “interrupted by a hail of bullets,” as Hemmert recounted in a harrowing Facebook post.
The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times picked up the story, reporting that as Hemmert and friends celebrated her 75th birthday Friday evening at Mandina’s Restaurant in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood, their celebratory mood was shattered as gunfire erupted, killing one of the restaurant’s servers and seriously wounding one of Hemmert’s friends in the back as “28 of my precious friends were hitting the floor,” she posted.
The Times-Picayune of New Orleans identified the slain server — who police said was targeted by two assailants — as 23-year-old Hilbert Walker III. A private security guard returned fire; interim New Orleans police Superintendent Michelle Woodfork told reporters.
Hemmert, who skipped Jazz Fest and stayed in her hotel room throughout the weekend, said she will never be the same after seeing her loved ones “covered with blood.” Thankfully, Hemmert’s wounded friend was well enough to fly home to Chicago, but will carry a bullet in her back. Hemmert said that people who are tired of hearing about shootings should “think again,” as she posted, “It’s no longer a figure of speech when you say you dodged a bullet. And if someone says ‘this is not America,’ or ‘this is not us,’ they had better duck.”
In closing, Hemmert said, “We will never get over it. Life goes on within you and without you. But as long as we refuse to do something about this epidemic, we are not ‘safe.’ And neither are you. And everyone you love.” [Photo credit: Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune]
