COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — In 2020, twenty children died of gunshot wounds, according to records filed with the Ohio Department of Health.

That was five times the number of children who died from gunshot wounds in 2019.

This is a map of the children who died, according to records from Columbus Division of Police, which lists 21 children, rather than the 20 records filed with the Ohio Department of Health.

Bishop Jerry Pierce, of Miracle Cathedral on East 5th Avenue, read the names of each child who died from a bullet in Columbus in 2020, as a way of honoring their memories.

A pediatric trauma surgeon says that children who come into the emergency room often have deceptively tiny entrance wounds, but inside the child is dying.

The trauma resulting from a child dying radiates throughout the community. This phenomenon is called “toxic stress” and can impact children physically, as well as with PTSD, and show up later as asthma, heart disease or cancer.

Although NBC’s reporting focused on the children in our neighborhoods who died in Columbus in 2020, gun shot wounds in children overall also increased significantly.