(ABC News)--A 6-month-old baby has died in a Chicago hospital after being shot five
times while her father, the intended target in the shooting, was shot
several times and now remains in critical condition.
Jonylah Watkins was shot along with her father Jonathan Watkins, 25, in
Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood Monday afternoon, police confirmed this
morning, in the latest death in the city's escalation gang violence
dilemma.
Baby Jonylah was transported to Comer Children's Hospital where she
underwent five hours of surgery, according to ABC affiliate WLS.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's office confirmed the baby's death early Tuesday.
Jonathan Watkins is recovering from his wounds at Northwestern Memorial
Hospital. Garry McCarthy, Chicago's police chief, said that Watkins
underwent several surgeries and is in critical but stable condition.
Officer Mike Sullivan with the Chicago police department told
ABCNews.com that they gunman walked up and fired at Watkins and his
child at 12:48 p.m. Monday, then fled in a waiting car.
"He walked up and ran back into a car," he said. "He fled through an adjacent lot to blue minivan."
Investigators were searching for the vehicle but do not have any leads, Sullivan said.
Jonathan Watkins has known gang affiliations, according to Sullivan.
Investigators believe that the shooting may be gang-related.
"This is another tragedy, because no child, certainly not an infant,
should be a victim of gang violence," McCarthy said at a press
conference today. "Although there are a lot of angles that we're
pursuing, there are very strong gang overtones to this particular
event."
McCarthy emphasized that the shooting was a targeted incident, saying:
"It was very clear that whoever was doing this was firing at [Jonathan
Watkins]."
Police have a video of the vehicle, but with Watkins in critical
condition they do not have a good cooperating witness, McCarthy said.
"She's six months old. For a person to do that, what kind of heart?"
Jonylah's grandmother Mary Young told WLS.
Family and friends were keeping a vigil for Baby Jonylah overnight.
Relatives heard the gunfire a couple of blocks away and rushed to the
scene.
"There is always someone getting shot in this neighborhood," relative
Tiffany Young told WLS. "We are close together, and we know them. There
are killings all the time."
Baby Jonylah is the latest death in what is becoming a deadly year for Chicago.
Hadiya Pendleton, 15, was killed when a gunman opened fire on a group of
young people in a park blocks from her school on the city's South Side.
Days prior, Pendleton, a drum majorette, had participated in events
surrounding President Obama's second inauguration. Police said Pendleton
was an innocent bystander.
Pendleton's shooting came in January among a string of recent
high-profile gun crimes across the city, which is now experiencing one
its highest homicide rates in 10 years -- most of which has been spurred
by gang warfare.
On November 26, 15-year-old Porshe Foster, a sophomore and honor student
in the city's South Side, was chatting with friends after basketball
practice when someone sprayed over a dozen rounds of bullets into the
group of friends. Foster died after she was shot in the back.
The city's first week of 2013 saw an average of two murders per day,
after the city registered at least 500 homicides last year. In 2011,
there were 435 homicides.
On Monday, Chicago police announced that they arrested 24 suspects for
illegal guns and drug activity. McCarthy said that Chicago police have
seized 1,300 illegal guns in the first 10 weeks of 2013.
"The fact is, this is a sobering reality that we have a lot of work to
do, even though we're making progress," McCarthy said Monday. "We're not
going to rest until everybody in this city has the same safety that
most neighborhoods in Chicago enjoy."
Copyright 2013 by ABC News
