Jonathan Watkins was changing his baby daughter’s diaper in the front passenger seat of a minivan parked on a Chicago street yesterday when someone opened fire on them. Six-month-old Jonylah Watkins was shot five times, in the thigh, shoulder, lung, liver, and bowels, and “she didn’t make it,” her father tells theChicago Sun-Times. “I was trying to help. I was trying to help. I was trying to help her.” Watkins, himself in critical condition, says he has no idea who the gunman could have been, though police believe Watkins was the chosen target, reports NBC Chicago. Chicago’s police superintendent says that Watkins is a gang member with a lengthy criminal past, reports the AP.
In a wrenching twist, the girl had already made it through one shooting: Jonylah’s mother, Judy Watkins, was shot in the knee in the same neighborhood when she was eight months pregnant with her daughter; residents say gunfire is common in the area. The gunman fled after the shooting; police are looking into an angry Facebook post that could have prompted the incident, sources say.
