Baby ‘Jonylah Watkins’ Dies In Chicago After Being Shot 5 Times In Attack On Her Father

A six-month-old baby girl died this morning after she was shot five times in Chicago during an attack on her father, just months after her mother was shot and wounded while she was still in the womb.

The murder of little Jonylah Watkins, who was the victim of gun violence twice before she was even a year old has horrified even a city where shootings have become commonplace. The news sent shock waves throughout the country. 

Jonylah was hit in her lungs, her liver, her leg, her shoulder and her bowel when a gunman opened fire in broad daylight on Monday in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago as her father changed her diaper. Jonathan Watkins, 29, was the target of the attack. He was shot twice, but survived and is in critical condition at the hospital.

'This morning, the baby passed away,' the Reverend Corey Brooks, a family spokesman, told the Chicago Tribune.  'We have another tragedy in the city of Chicago.'

Jonylah underwent several hours of surgery at Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago as doctors frantically tried to save her life.

Mr Watkins was changing his daughter's diaper in the passenger seat

of his van when a gunman walked up behind him in broad daylightand opened fire

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the shooting appears to be gang-related, though detectives don't have a specific motive.  Despite the shocking crime, neighbors are refusing to cooperate with police.

'We don't have one individual who's stepping up to help us,' McCarthy said.

Heartbroken: Contoria Power, Jonylah's cousin, sobs as she talks

to family on her cell phone outside the scene of the shooting

Mr. Watkins told the Chicago Sun-Times from his hospital room that he was devastated by the death of his infant daughter.

'I was trying to help. I was trying to help. I was trying to help her,' he said, breaking down.

Still, he claims he has no idea who shot him or why he was targeted. The shooting on Monday comes months after her mother Judy, 20, was hit by a gunman when she was pregnant with Jonylah. 

Her family said Mrs Watkins was hit in the knee when she was eight months pregnant as she walked home with a group of women. 

She was at work at McDonald's when her daughter was fatally wounded on Monday.

In January and February this year, 57 people were killed in Chicago - most of them victims of gang-related shootings on the south side of the city. Chicago gained national attention when its murders for January spiked to 43, the highest rate in years - making the city even more dangerous than when mobster Al Capone ruled the streets. 

In February killings dropped to 14 for the month - the lowest since 1957.

Reverend Brooks, the Watkins family spokesman, stood with Mrs Watkins outside the hospital after the baby's surgery. He told DNAinfo: ‘This mother is really hurt. We need everyone in Chicago praying for this family right now.

Jonylah's mother Judy Watkins, 20

Rev Brooks' church New Beginnings Church of Chicago is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest. 

The family have called on the 'cowardly' gunman to turn himself in.

Source: Daily Mail