6-month-old Jonylah Watkins was shot five times during an ambush Monday afternoon in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Woodlawn. The infant died Tuesday morning from her wounds at Comer Children’s Hospital, according to Fox News. Jonylah’s father Jonathan Watkins, a reputed gang member, remains in serious but stable condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to police. The 6-month-old little girl was having her diaper changed by her father in his minivan when an attacker approached and began shooting.
Witnesses told police the gunman approached Jonathan Watkins around 1 p.m. while he was standing beside his minivan and changing his daughter's diaper. She was laying on the front seat. Her family reports Jonylah was shot in the thigh, shoulder, lung, liver and bowels.
The infant underwent surgery yesterday for her injuries, but succumbed to her wounds this morning. The Houston Chronicle reports that Jonathan Watkins has a long criminal history, and Monday's attack appears to have been gang-related.
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at a news conference Tuesday that Watkins belonged to a gang. He said police do not yet know whether Watkins will decide to cooperate with authorities in the murder investigation of his small daughter.
Tuesday police continue to comb the South Side neighborhood for any security camera footage that could yield clues as to who carried out the attack.
The 6-month-old’s mother, Judy Watkins, was shot in the knee while she was pregnant with Jonylah, according to her mother Mary Young. “There's too much shooting over there”, Young told a group of reporters Monday.
Speaking about her granddaughter, she added, “She's nothing but 6 months old. How could anybody - what kind of heart”?
Police Superintendent McCarthy said, “No child, certainly not an infant, should be a victim of gang violence”.
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