On MLK Day, Benjamin “Bo” Mandujano-Bradford, a twenty year old student from Evanston, came to New Trier to listen to Isabel Wilkerson speak. Less than two days later, on Tuesday evening, Mandujano-Bradford was shot dead outside of his house. The current police investigation believes he was targeted.

Mandujano-Bradford visited New Trier to get Wilkerson to sign his copy of her book, “The Warmth of Other Suns,” which he had received a couple of months ago. He even got a photo with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

The twenty year old had some past criminal charges, but instead of doing jail time, he was a part of a three month program called Curt’s Cafe. Many probation officers in Evanston recommend that kids join it, as it is a “non-profit organization that provides training, in food service and life skills for at-risk youth in Evanston,” according to their website. It is for kids ages 15-22 that either have had past run-ins with the criminal justice system or are headed in that direction. It is intended to give the youths a more secure future and embraces the theory of restorative justice. On the day he was shot, Mandujano-Bradford had passed his food certification exam.

Often when we hear about shootings in the news, we can’t personally relate. Whether affluence, race, age, or location set us apart, these shootings don’t usually hit close to home. But here is a boy, just a few years older than us, who walked around our school hallways last Monday, and was murdered just one town away.

Some New Trier students probably saw him or walked past him. So to us, his death makes things more real. He could be any one of us, if he had lived in Wilmette instead of Evanston. And that is what makes it so shocking. One day, he was here. The next day, he was gone.

It really made me think about how fortunate I am to live the life that I do. In Glencoe, Winnetka, and Wilmette, no one is targeted in a shooting outside of their house. Yet one town over in Evanston, it happens.

And Evanston isn’t nearly as dangerous and crime ridden as many other places in America. In comparison to the south side of Chicago, Evanston is a safe haven, which is a terrifying thought. The seemingly terrible event of a young man getting shot outside his home is a lot less uncommon there than in Evanston.

These issues of violence are far too prevalent in American society nowadays, and we are fortunate enough to live in an area where we aren’t exposed to it often. Even Evanston, though a different environment than Winnetka and Wilmette, isn’t a dangerous place in comparison to violent hot-spots.

Another thing that makes this death so terrible is that Mandujano-Bradford was just twenty years old. He had so much of his life ahead of him and so much potential. You never know, when a young person dies, what they may have brought to our world. He hadn’t gotten the chance to grow up, to start a family, to be successful in life. His life was cut short before he knew it.

Despite this tragic event so close to home, a surprisingly few number of people know about it. Our sheltered lifestyle goes both ways: our contained way of life stays within the bubble, and things that challenge it don’t enter. But it is important that we are aware that our way of life is not representative of the real world, or even the world just ten minutes down the road.