On July 29, 14-year-old basketball star Semaj Miller was gunned down in South Los Angeles.
At six-foot-seven-inches tall, the Compton teenager was expected to go far with the L.A. City Wildcats, an association that helped launch the career of NBA player James Harden.
Now the community is mourning his loss.
"Semaj was such a talented kid who lost his life too soon," Rapper Percy “Master P” Miller, a coach and part-owner of the team, told Cheddar. "We have to stop this senseless killing, gun violence in our community. It's not the police. This is us killing us."
Miller lamented that gun violence is robbing the next generation of its talent, as well as those who could find success and come back and invest in their communities.
"This kid could have been the next LeBron James, could have been the next James Harden," he said. "We'll never get to know how talented this kid could have been."
Stepping outside of the rhetoric used in recent protests against police violence, the rapper said it was the responsibility of citizens to stop the violence in their own communities.
"I know we're out here protesting for Black Lives Matter, but my thing is, 'Okay, our kids matter,'" he said. "This is our future."
Miller didn't outline specific preventive measures but emphasized parenting and education.
"It's got to start in our community. We have to stand up for these kids. We have to protect them. We have to educate them," he said.
A new monument in Virginia is honoring three veterans of the Union's United States Colored Troops (USCT) who were captured and executed in 1864 just 300 feet away.
Cheddar recs "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," "Tiger King," "How to Get Away With Murder," and "Seinfeld
A judge in Michigan has approved a $626 million settlement for Flint residents and others who were exposed to lead-contaminated water.
Carlo and Baker cover the latest inflation print, a climate pledge between adversaries, a dramatic day in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and more.
Until recently, abortion was criminalized in Mexico. Now, Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion at the same time the strictest abortion law in the United States went into effect in Texas, changing the dynamics of seeking abortions in the region.
Nearly one in five American households adopted a new cat or dog over the pandemic, but will those pets still remain in their "fur-ever homes" once the pandemic is deemed over?
Some ominous signs as Covid cases stop going down, Kamala Harris' brutal poll numbers, a union drive at Starbucks and more.
Rapper and fashion mogul Ye's high-end clothing company Yeezy agreed Monday to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by four California district attorneys over slow shipping to customers.
The storied American company General Electric will divide itself into three public companies focused on aviation, healthcare and energy.
Jill and Carlo discuss the scenes of joy at American airports as borders reopen, another tool in the Covid toolbox, the latest in the Astroworld crowd crush tragedy and more.
