A kitten’s triumph to help an orphan after a 4th of July murder
Nearly $2.5 million was raised for Ayden, a two-year-old boy who lost both parents in a shooting near Chicago on Monday.
Seven people were killed Monday in a shooting in Highland Park near Chicago. (illustrative picture)
Getty Images via AFP
A kitty launched online to help a two-year-old child whose parents died in a shooting near Chicago on Monday surpassed $2.5 million (2.4 million francs) on Wednesday, the site said. Irina and Kevin McCarthy, 35 and 37, were attending a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park when they were shot by a sniper on the roof of a business.
Panicking, residents gathered little Aiden and brought him to safety before launching a search warrant to find his loved ones. He was later picked up by his grandparents, according to authorities who confirmed on Tuesday that his parents were among the seven killed.
Robert C, 21, opened fire indiscriminately on the crowd with a semi-automatic rifle, injuring more than thirty others. He was arrested on Monday after hours on the run and faces life in prison for murder.
46,000 donors
Kitty raised $500,000 on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe on Tuesday. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had surpassed $2.5 million paid by more than 46,000 donors.
One of them was billionaire philanthropist William Ackman, who donated $18,000, the site reported. On the day of the tragedy, he took to his Twitter account to condemn the inaction of the authorities in the face of the shooting, and on Tuesday he retweeted a photo of the boy.
“Aiden will be cared for by his loving family and will have a long way to go to recover, find stability and live as an orphan,” wrote fundraiser organizer Irini Colon, assuring approval from the child’s family.
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