Curiosity
6-month-old shot, dies in gun violence


DNAINFO.COM CHICAGO
Dominique Young, the aunt of 6-month-old Johnylah Watkins, shows a photo of her niece, who was shot while her father, Jonathan Watkins, changed her diaper.
Gun violence in Chicago has once again claimed the life of a child.
Six-month-old Johnylah Watkins died after a gunman opened fire on her and her father, a known gang member.
The father, Jonathan Watkins, was also hit, though not critically, and remains in the hospital in serious condition. Watkins was changing his daughter’s diaper inside his parked car when gunshots came from another vehicle. Johnylah was struck five times before being rushed to the hospital mid-day on Monday March 11th.
The shooter “was firing at the father, and exclusively at the father,” Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told CNN.
He added that no one has come forward to help police.
“We don’t have one individual who’s stepping up to help us,” he said. “We don’t have cooperating witnesses.”
The father, Jonathan Watkins, is in serious condition at Northwestern Hospital, but he was able to give a brief phone interview to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“I was trying to help. I was trying to help. I was trying to help her,” he told a reporter shortly after learning that his baby had died from her wounds. “They told me she didn’t make it.”
The baby died the next day.
Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy believes that the father was most likely the sole target. But the latest in what seems like constant shootings in the city of Chicago has many distraught and outraged. Chicago Pastor Corey Brooks says “It’s horrific.”
The shooter has yet to be found, but witnesses say the gunman fled the scene in a blue van.
According to the Huffington Post, gun violence in the city has earned the national media attention — including two recent back-to-back This American Life episodes on NPR, even as its oft-blasted homicide rate in February plummeted to a 56-year-low. Previously, in January, 40 homicides were reported by police.
“It’s never been a regular day in Chicago when it comes to our children dying this way,” said Diane Latiker, a Chicago mother of eight children who became a CNN Hero nominee for her work trying to keep kids away from violence.
“Hearing about this baby — I was so outraged. It just is so beyond,” she said. “I will stay outraged but the problem is that people in our community are not speaking up, they are not speaking at all. We are not vocal enough. We’re too silent.”
In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour.1
On The Web:
Chicago baby shot while dad changes diaper
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/12/justice/illinois-baby-shooting/index.html
6-month-old girl dies after getting shot multiple times as her father changed her diaper outside a Chicago home
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gangbanger-dad-6-month-baby-daughter-shot-cops-article-1.1285627
GUN VIOLENCE STATISTICS
http://smartgunlaws.org/category/gun-studies-statistics/gun-violence-statistics/