Yasmin Perez and Gyovanny Arzuaga
The video is harrowing to watch. A woman dragged out of her car by a group of men, beaten then shot in the neck, her boyfriend dying, shot multiple times execution-style as he shielded her body with his.
The couple was celebrating Chicago’s Puerto Rican Day Parade, flying a big Boricua flag attached to their car when they were ambushed. The graphic video of the attack went viral and blew up a story that otherwise would have slipped under the wire as just another violent day in an American city.
Nothing new—just par for the course. Except this was not just another day.
Gyovanny Arzuaga, 24, and his 23-year-old partner Yasmin Perez, the mother of their two children (age one and three) were ambushed last weekend while attending the Puerto Rican Day Parade at Humboldt Park by a group of men after what police said was a minor car accident. City cameras captured the crime in grainy detail. This also happened to be the first official federal celebration of Juneteenth.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who had marched in the parade earlier, condemned the attack as “horrific.”
“As you saw from the horrific video, it wasn’t just one person. There’s one person who dealt the fatal shot. But there were others who were standing by who dragged that poor woman out of the car. The man who was killed literally used his body as a shield and paid for that with his life,” the mayor said.
“I don’t believe they [the shooters] are typical by any stretch of young black men in our city. But it’s horrific nonetheless,” Lightfoot added.
The police have “promising leads” after tips from the community have identified a suspect who likely did the shooting. They hope to have a suspect in custody soon.
The couple was one of 10 victims who died and 65 wounded in a weekend of violence.
Most of the United State’s media categorized the brutal attack as a local story—one fit for the city’s crime blotter. It hardly made national news. No hashtags, no thoughts, and prayers, no protests on the street, and just a small fist of flowers in a makeshift memorial. Un lamento borincano.
Instead, the lead story this week that featured Latinos was the growing outrage at a high school coach in California who had been fired after tortillas were thrown at Hispanic opponents after a championship game. The incident was also caught on video. Tortillas vs two Boricuas killed brutally. What a choice.
In Puerto Rico, the story received even less coverage. It gained some traction when a popular social media figure, Molusco, said that the couple was killed because they were flying a Puerto Rican flag.
ASESINAN BORICUA EN CHICAGO POR BANDERA.
Gyovanny Arzuaga fue asesinado y Yasmin Perez se encuentra en estado crítico luego de ser baleados por un grupo de afroamericanos, quienes los sacaron de su auto por portar la bandera de Puerto Rico al finalizar la Parada Puertorriqueña pic.twitter.com/P1gYlAzzFt
— Molusco ? (@Moluskein) June 21, 2021
Some commentators agreed with Molusco. Others were not sympathetic to the two young Puerto Ricans, claiming they were probably gang members. As a Boricua friend of mine on the island said: “Aquí no hay simpatía para él que se va.”
The motive of the attack is not clear, but police say the couple had been involved in a minor car accident before the attack. The video shows a group of men surrounding the car and dragging the couple out. There seems to have been a gunshot shortly before, but that was not caught on tape.
The story only began to gain traction after the graphic video went viral on social media. By Monday morning, at least 571,000 people on Twitter had viewed the fatal shooting. This focused national attention on what had happened and on the escalation of violence in Chicago and nationwide. The video is the reason so many people are talking about it, not the media.
In an attempt to stem the rising violence, President Joe Biden announced new efforts next Wednesday —focusing on gun violence. The Justice Department is mobilizing strike forces in cities including Chicago to combat illegal gun traffickers.
None of the measures address the economic, social, and racial issues that underpin the violence that plagues the US. (Let’s also not forget that Donald Trump’s undisguised contempt towards the archipelago made Puerto Ricans an easy target.)
The fact that two young people —Puerto Rican— can be executed out in the open and the media considers it just a horrible local crime —and not much else— should give us ample cause for concern.
If there wasn’t a racial element to the attack, then we should look at how the coverage was approached. This was an attack that speaks volumes about the state of the U.S. now.
We must also not allow the narrative to be hijacked by political agendas. Conservative columnist Ann Coulter shared the video and claimed that the media ignored because African Americans gunning down Puerto Ricans in Chicago doesn’t fit the Democrat’s narrative about racism in the United States.
A Democrat activist named Richard Taite snapped back that the couple had it coming because they were flying a Confederate Flag.
According to the founder of the award winning Democracy Preservation Initiative, it is absolutely okay to drag white people out of their cars and execute them in front of their children
I'm sure these people will come around now that the Republican Party has gone woke, right? pic.twitter.com/HUJvuLsWAJ
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) June 21, 2021
As a Puerto Rican, it is hard not to react in anger, not to believe that it is an us versus them scenario, and to listen to your better angels so as not to seek blame where maybe there is none. It is painful when you see two of your own lying shot execution-style on the floor, the Puerto Rican flag fluttering in the background as a terrible requiem to the American Dream.
It could be that I am too close to it, but this one feels different. It feels personal, not only because of the intimacy of the violence but also because no one seemed to care. The system pits underrepresented communities against each other—it is part of the playbook. Don’t bend the mirror with which America sees itself. But it’s the media’s job —its duty— to bend that mirror.
I ascribe to the words of the African-American writer James Baldwin: Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
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Susanne Ramirez de Arellano is the former News Director for Univision Puerto Rico and a writer and journalist living in New York City. She has a blog in El Nuevo Día called Dos Caminos y Una Subversiva. Comments can be sent to her email. You can follow Susanne on Twitter @DurgaOne.
Susanne, people like you make it almost impossible to care about murders like these (I said almost). Leftists like you have fed The Beast. Now you complain when it eats someone you care about. Huh.
Let me be clearer: only one “Truth” matters in America today: that whites are evil and destruction should be their fate. Nothing else matters. So don’t be surprised when all kinds of bad things happen in America these days. It’s an evil, wicked country that worships a false “Truth”.
Now return to your fun little pursuit of racial payback……
Your take on the California tortilla incident is pathetic!! Coronado High has a history of racism in a city (San Diego) with a predominantly Hispanic culture. There’s no competition when it comes to racism and all should be exposed. You don’t know what Latinos go through in California. The gentrification, displacement and history of California. Street vendors are being killed in broad daylight, a father was killed in Fresno execution style in broad daylight. Latino social media pages are standing up for Perez and Arzuaga and Mexicans including myself are stepping up for our fellow Latinos. We all are cause we’re fed up of being swept under the rug.
Things needs to be address Hate in America has always been a problem and it’s getting worse! The people that did this needs to be in jail.
To Jim~ And the rest…just because Susanne is Latina don`t assume she is a leftist. In Chicago where this happened it`s the white people who are liberal leftist. And us Latinos get caught in the middle w/ no one to defend us. The liberal whites are scared to speak the truth. And in Chicago they rather vote for blacks then for Latinos. And furthermore, I care about the two people that were murdered. And no one respects Latinos because we don`t riot like black people do. Only if you are hateful in America do people care and respect you. Yes! You are right “Hate” is a big part of America! That could have been me w/ no fault of my own. And I can speak about it because I was @ the parade earlier that day. And those two people are related to my nieces. What a disgrace. RIP
As an African American woman, I was and still am appalled by what happened to this beautiful young couple and their families as a result. I am equally appalled that it was people of my own race who did the crime. My prayers are not only with victims in these situations for justice, but for my own people (the ones who are doing these crimes) that we would stop killing one another and others as well. I agree that we should not sweep these situations under the rug but perhaps it’s up to us to do what is right in our city and in our nation. As a Christian, I believe that this is also a spiritual battle and we must remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. We cannot fight this battle on our own, but through the power of Jesus Christ. May God Bless you all.
You are a good person. Stay safe this world needs more kindness.
Sadly, I just stumbled across this story as I don’t have any social media accounts. Can someone help me? At what point was the shooter identified as being black? Is that evident in the video (which i haven’t seen)? Even the mayor indicated that the shooter was black and I’ve seen comments from people apologizing and praying for ‘our people’ (black people). The one consistent thing I’ve noticed in most of the commentary I’ve read is that the comments about ‘the black shooters’, and the ‘black animals’, and other such language just ends. No more comments after it was revealed that the shooter was not black. Did people stop caring about the story between the time it happened and when the shooter was arrested or is there a lot of egg on a lot of faces?
Yeah… and that includes the author. This didn’t age well. I guess you can blame the mayor since she was the first to ID the suspects as Black. I knew that there was no way in HELL that some Black gang could just execute two PRs in the middle of the street(flag-a-wavin) on PR Day @Humboldt Park?
Not that it should matter, but the skin color of the perps is evident in the video. It is just one more upsetting thing to come out of Chicago. Not too long ago, things really were starting to improve, now they have a city council and mayor more concerned about democratic talking points than the lives of people in their own city. I will admit having a major fundraiser for the party I was a member of until last year basically say the shooting would have been fine if the perps had been white and with a different flag made my blood boil. But I am in that apparent minority that believe violence against any people not actively posing a threat is wrong even if those people are white.
I agree that violence against humans is wrong. And we, unfortunately, contribute to violence by feeding negative stereotypes. The skin color looks brown. And in this country racial/ethnic origins of brown folks can range from African American to Australian and everything in between. There are brown Latinos, Natives/Indigenous, Asian, African even Europeans (Sicilian).. let’s educate ourselves and not assume. It’s very harmful. More Love *
Word!
Demn Right! Fight fight fight said the yellow haired Clown
This is so sad. 1st, my sincerest condolences to the families and community affected. This is disgusting. But yall.. please let’s not feed the racial divide. The shooter was identified as a member of the Latin Kings, last name Lorenzi (I think Anthony was the 1st name). Look him up. “Black” encompasses many phenotypes, but I do not believe this man was of the African Amerocan community. We did not do this. We do not want to be blamed for this. Please correct your assumptions. The mayor fed the assumption, the public ran with it. Let’s treat each other right, in person and over the internet. Much Love.
well, if you live among “teens” and other dindus, you get what you deserve. they relaxed and payed the price.
“I don’t believe they [the shooters] are typical by any stretch of young black men in our city. But it’s horrific nonetheless,”
and there we found the reason, why the problem will never go away. not even a double murder, execution style, can stop the concern about how the perps “will look bad”. joggers will be joggers, bikes will be bikes.
If I was mayor or president i”all have a very strict policies and order that anybody accuse or anyone caught doing these senseless crime be sentence to at least 80 or more years behind bars.with the possibility of parole in no more or less than 35 straight no exception no if or buts/ unless depending on pass conviction of the accuse.i”m truly sorry if i”m been hard but it’s the only way these people.pre teens=teenagers=and so on and on and also depending on the evidence at hand other than that i”all referendum i”all would give them and all that puts our people of all colors at great risk of been hurt or worst kill” because”Johnny be bad didn’t get paid.I’ll conclude with this “God bless all of us not just the victim but the accuser too people its time to live in peace and get alone and in harmony before its too late.p.s ” Remember this our good lord is coming soon”Like a thrive at night”if we are not ready then we are doomed “GOD BLESS ALL of us ” thank you”