Donald Trump sought to use the shooting death of basketball player Dwyane Wade's cousin as a political statement on Saturday, a move that drew scorn from some on social media.
On Friday, Nykea Aldridge, 32, was shot and killed while she pushed her baby in a stroller near an elementary school on Chicago's South Side. The baby was not harmed in the shooting.
Trump, after a year of waging a presidential campaign marked by divisive and racially coded rhetoric, has recently sought to appeal to black voters. The effort, note many political observers, is also an attempt to boost his poll numbers with moderate whites, who in surveys view past rhetoric by Trump to be racist.
At several rallies in recent weeks, Trump has insisted that blacks have a right to walk down the street and not get "shot" in what he has described as neighborhoods worse than war zones.
The death of Wade's cousin offered fodder to Trump on Saturday, who initially spelled Wade's first name wrong.
"Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP," he tweeted, though his polling numbers among blacks nationally are in the single digits. He later followed up with a tweet offering his condolences to Wade and his family.
Dozens of Twitter users assailed Trump for showing what they saw as a lack of sympathy.
Everytown, a group that works to pass stricter gun laws nationwide, tweeted that Trump truly does not care about ways to address gun violence.
The group cited Trump's comments during the Republican primary, in which he said he could "shoot somebody" and would not lose votes.
On Saturday, Wade, a shooting guard for the Chicago Bulls, noted his cousin's death as "senseless" gun violence and did not respond to Trump.
