A 6-month-old baby girl has died in Chicago after she was shot five times .
Earlier today, The Inquisitr reported upon the 6-month-old shot and wounded, and at the time, the child remained in critical condition battling for her life. Our post this morning noted that witnesses to the horrific shooting reported that “a man ran up next to Jonathan Watkins’ vehicle while he changed his daughter Johnylah’s diaper.”
The shooter then “opened fire on the father and his daughter before jumping into a van and speeding away from the scene.” The vehicle which fled the area was described by witnesses as a blue conversion van.
The 6-month-old was raced to Comer Children’s Hospital, and immediately underwent surgery for injuries sustained in the shooting. While Jonathan Watkins was hit in the buttock and side and remains in critical condition, Johnylah was struck in the lung, liver, bowel, thigh and shoulder.
The shooting that claimed the 6-month-old’s life was not even the first she encountered in her short life. According to Mary Young, grandmother of Johnylah and mother to the girl’s mother Judy Watkins, Watkins was shot in the knee while she was pregnant with Johnylah.
Young told reporters after her 6-month-old granddaughter was shot:
“There’s too much shooting over there… She’s nothing but 6 months old. How could anybody — what kind of heart ?”
According to MyFoxChicago, Jonathan Watkins is conscious and has been informed of his daughter’s death. The site says that Wilkins was briefly able to speak with the Chicago Sun-Times today, before breaking down as he said:
I was trying to help. I was trying to help. I was trying to help her… They told me she didn’t make it.”
As the 6-month-old dies, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told press that cops have deduced the father was the “intended victim” of the shooting, and that “there are very strong gang overtones to this event.”