Perspective: Children born poor have little margin for mistakes or bad decisions, regardless of race

Alfred King was lying in the parking lot of a small apartment building, mortally wounded when police in Alexandria, Louisiana got to the intersection of 12th and Magnolia streets shortly before 1:30 a.m., January 20.

The 34-year-old was the first fatal shooting of the year in the small city where I grew up and a large portion of my family lives.

Alfred's death was similar to some I have covered since my first in 1985, a 38-year period when hundreds of thousands of people of all races and ethnicities have died violently in the U.S.

I know the details of too many of those incidents, from school shootings to a drug hit in a phone booth. I've heard the scream of a mom coming home from work