A man was charged in connection with the fatal March shooting of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins in Chicago.
Koman Willis, 33, was charged with killing the young girl and was also charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, reported the Chicago Tribune. Willis allegedly shot the girl and her father--the intended target in the shooting--on March 11. The father, Jonathan Watkins, was reportedly changing the girl’s diaper at the time.
Willis, who has 46 arrests since 1996, has been held in the Area Central police headquarters since Saturday, reported the paper.
NBC Chicago reported that Willis shot at Watkins over a stolen video game system. Watkins survived the incident.
“We think that every day it is going to happen. Every single day we are hopeful and thankful, you know, that it is going to happen,” pastor Corey Brooks, speaking on behalf of Watkins’ family, told WLS-TV. “We are hoping that it will be in the next 24 hours.”
More than 500 people were killed in Chicago in 2012 due to gun violence
“This is another tragedy, because no child, certainly not an infant, should be a victim of gang violence,” Garry McCarthy, the police chief of Chicago, said after the infant was shot three months ago, reported ABC News. “Although there are a lot of angles that we’re pursuing, there are very strong gang overtones to this particular event.”
Authorities originally suspected that the shooting was gang-related due to Watkins’ past gang affiliations. However, Brooks told CBS Chicago that Watkins is not involved in any gang activity and is currently working towards getting his his GED.
“Everyone wished that it could have been sooner, but we know for a fact that the police have been very diligent and very hard working so it is not as if they have not been doing their job, they have been doing a great job in communication with Jonathan and myself almost every single day with someone from the CPD and we’re grateful for that,” Brooks told the broadcaster.
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