Photos from the 500campaign are spreading rapidly on social media. (Courtesy: instagram.com/500campaign)

NBC Chicago - After the murder totals in Chicago started racking up after January of this year, South Side native Bryant Cross decided he’d seen enough.

The 28-year-old speech communications professor started thinking of effective ways to spread an anti-violence message and came up with the 500campaign, head shots of Chicagoans with the slogan “Angry Because Over 500 Youth Were Murdered in Chicago.”

“I came across a picture of myself looking sad and that’s what started it,” Cross says. “I posted it on Instagram and Facebook with the text, and next thing I know, 20 people emailed me asking to do it for them.”

He’s had fairly steady requests over the past couple of weeks, but when 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins was fatally shot on Monday, the requests started coming in fast and furious.

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