These gun deaths didn't make national headlines, but they left a devastating mark
Note: This article discusses gun violence in all its forms, including suicide.
For every mass shooting that dominates the headlines, there are scores of deaths like Quinton Scott's that most people never hear about.
On July 4 — the same day a gunman opened fire on an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Ill. — Scott was shot and killed in Peoria, a few hours away.
His death didn't make national news, but it devastated the people who knew him.
"I don't know how to feel, except I feel lost," said Marcellus Sommerville, who mentored the 19-year-old. Sommerville said Scott was a curious kid with an old soul.
Sommerville runs Peoria Friendship House, a community organization where Scott was enrolled in a career development program, working towards becoming a carpenter. "He had a passion for using his hands," Sommerville said.
Staff at Friendship House had helped Scott work his way through a self-paced high school diploma program. They just celebrated his graduation in April. Sommerville said that in a lot of ways, Scott was battling life after losing his mother
