ST. LOUIS — Eight kids shot, eight lives stolen in the St. Louis area in less than eight weeks.
"It broke my heart," said trauma therapist Candice Cox. "I was thinking to myself, like, 'Another one. Like real talk, another baby has lost their life.'"
This time, it was 10-year-old Eddie Hill IV.
A gunman shot him in the chest on the 4700 block of Page Boulevard at about 8 p.m. Friday night.
"And then to hear that they were just sitting on the porch minding their own business," Cox said. "So how do I, as a child, sit and I'm minding my business and the next thing you know, I lose my life."
Eddie is the latest in a terrifying trend of children losing their lives to gun violence.
It was just last week when 16-year-old Bayless High School student RJ Dorsey was shot in front of his home, too.
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Cox said the continued violence against children is affecting our psyche.
"I think that's what's happening, in all honesty, is that we're getting desensitized to it," Cox said. "You know, you see someone dies, whether it's a child, whether it's an adult, and it's like there's an outrage for a couple of days. But then people go into their regularly scheduled program because it's starting to be normal."
With school starting in just a few weeks, she's hoping families will take this time to heal and explain to younger ones this violence is not normal.
"I say it all the time -- we are not OK, St. Louis. We can't go through the things that we've been through, over the duration of years that we've been through them, and actually be OK."
Many of these crimes remain unsolved.
In Eddie's case, police are looking for a dark-colored vehicle that was last seen traveling east on Page Boulevard at Marcus Avenue on Friday night.
Anyone with information should contact CrimeStoppers at (314) 725-8477 (TIPS).