Takiya Holmes, one of two young girls shot on the South Side of Chicago over the weekend, has died, family has confirmed. The 11-year-old was struck by a stray bullet around 8 p.m. Saturday while sitting in a parked car with family members. Doctors had told relatives that her prognosis was “not good.”
“She was in bad shape and all tests failed,” her cousin, community activist Andrew Holmes, told the Chicago Tribune. “She had not started breathing on her own.”
Another cousin, Rachel Williams, posted on Facebook on Tuesday morning with the message, “At 8:17 this morning Takiya passed away in her mother’s arms.”
Takiya was shot just half an hour after 12-year-old Kanari Gentry Bowers was also shot while playing basketball with friends at Henderson Elementary School. The girls were two of 27 shot over the weekend.
Kanari remains on life support but has not responded to relatives so far, her family said. Her family told reporters that on at least three occasions, paramedics and hospital staff could not detect her heartbeat.
No one is currently in custody for either shooting, the Tribune reports. Police spokesman Michael Carroll told the Tribune that detectives were canvassing both areas for any private video and also examining images from city police cameras. However, Carroll said that the shootings were not related and neither girl was the intended target.
Read more at the Chicago Tribune.