• U.S.

Chicago Boy Who Spoke Out Against Violence Is Hit by Stray Bullet

1 minute read

A 13-year-old Chicago boy who participated in an anti-violence campaign last year was struck by a stray bullet last week.

Zarriel Trotter was shot in the lower back, close to his spine, blocks away from his home on Friday night, when a heated argument broke out between two groups, the Chicago Tribune reports. Police said he was not the intended target of the shooting.

Trotter was featured in a video released in February 2015 as part of an advocacy campaign titled Black is Human.

“I don’t want to live around in my community where I got to keep on hearing and hearing people keep on getting shot, people keep on getting killed,” Trotter says halfway through the video, in which young black boys talk about fearing violence in their communities.

Trotter was still in critical condition after surgery over the weekend.

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Write to Katie Reilly at Katie.Reilly@time.com