S. Samuel
Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose has reportedly been touched by the graphic slaying of a 6-month-old baby in his city this week and stepped forward to help ease the pain.
According to reports, Rose has offered to pay for slain 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins‘ funeral.
According to ABC 7 Chicago, the family’s spokesman Reverend Corey Brooks said injured Bulls star Derrick Rose has offered to pay for Jonylah’s funeral. “These persons who committed this horrible crime, we guarantee you they will be brought to justice,” Brooks explained Tuesday. Approximately 200 people, including Jonylah’s mother Judy Watkins, gathered at a vigil held later that night at the site of the fatal shooting. “When I find him, he’s going to jail,” Watkins told DNAinfo.com. The 20-year-old mother was shot in the leg last spring while pregnant with Jonylah. (Uptown Magazine)
Despite hours of emergency operations, Jonylah could not survive the injuries.
A team of doctors at Comer Children’s Hospital struggled for 12 hours to try to save the life of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins, but the damage was overwhelming. Jonylah was shot several times as her father changed her diaper inside a vehicle in the 6500-block of South Maryland. “This sweet baby had almost every organ system touched. Her lung was touched. Her liver was touched. Her diaphragm was destroyed,” Dr. Rachel Wolfson said. For 12 hours, doctors treated the baby in both the operating room and the intensive care unit. They say she was bleeding profusely and needed her blood volume replaced at least five times. (ABC Local)
There is currently a reward being offered in hopes of capturing the baby’s shooter.
The community is offering an $11,000 reward for the capture of Jonylah’s shooter. A family spokesman said Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose will help pay for the child’s funeral. “The City of Chicago should be outraged that in our city, a 6-month-old baby could be shot and killed,” Pastor Corey Brooks, the family’s spokesman said. “It’s horrific.” McCarthy said police are pursuing several angles and urge anyone with information to call Area Central Detectives at 312-747-8380. (NBC Chicago)
Details of the horrific shooting surfaced online earlier this week.
Authorities said Tuesday that an attack in which a 6-month-old girl was fatally shot and her father was wounded was apparently gang-related, and that they are searching for the gunman and the driver of the getaway van. Jonylah Watkins was shot five times during the Monday afternoon attack in the South Side neighborhood of Woodlawn. She died Tuesday morning at Comer Children’s Hospital, police said. Her father, Jonathan Watkins, was in serious but stable condition, recovering at Northwestern Memorial Hospital from wounds to his side, buttocks and face, which was only grazed, police said. (News One)
