The Rev Jesse Jackson has appealed to Barack Obama to "please come home" to Chicago and address the crisis in American urban life following the fatal shooting of a teenager less than a mile from Obama's house in the city.

"The president's voice is so urgently needed here," said Jackson, arguing that Obama's presence would help draw attention to the complexity of the economic and social problems affecting areas like Chicago that compound problems related to gun violence. "[That alone] would illuminate the condition."