A Brief Life in the Killing Zone

THOUGH ONLY 7, DANTRELL DAVIS HAD ALREADY witnessed more fire fights than most U.S. soldiers. Since March, two of his classmates at Jenner Elementary School in Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project had been slain, and Dantrell was well experienced in running for cover at the first sound of gunfire. But he never heard the shot that killed him on Oct. 13, when a sniper opened fire from a 10th-floor window as Dantrell walked to school with his mother. The rest of Chicago did, and Dantrell's death sparked yet another agonizing debate over how to stop the inner-city slaughter.

Chicago Housing Authority chairman Vincent Lane called for the National Guard to be deployed at Cabrini-Green. Mayor Richard Daley instead ordered a massive police sweep of the 70-acre, 78-building project, which houses 7,000 residents a few blocks from the city's swankest shopping district. At a press conference last Monday, Daley confirmed what most urban Americans already know, saying, "We have seen a complete breakdown of society."

Criticized for a city murder rate that has already topped 790 this year, Daley also announced other measures to beef up security at Cabrini-Green, including the use of metal detectors, IDs for residents and secured entrances. Meanwhile, suspect Anthony Garrett, 33, told police that he shot Dantrell by mistake. Garrett said he was simply trying to take out a few rival gang members when the first-grader got in the way.