An 11-year-old boy was fatally shot and a pregnant woman was critically injured in what appears to be a domestic incident in Chicago's North Side. The young victim, identified as Jaydone Perkins, and the 33-year-old expectant mother were attacked early Wednesday morning in their home on the 5900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Perkins was pronounced dead at Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, while the woman, who suffered three gunshot wounds to the chest and was eight months pregnant, is currently in critical condition there.
The woman's fiancé, also the father of the unborn child, who was not present during the incident, expressed his devastation and acknowledged knowing the suspect, who remains at large while the police were called to the home initially on a report of a stabbing, a dispatcher later was informed about the shooting, the police officer detailed that the young boy was found on the floor with a chest wound, the woman bleeding from the neck, CBS News Chicago conveyed part of the chaotic scene. Upon their arrival, law enforcement and medical personnel found both victims shot.
Speculation points to the assailant being a recently paroled felon with a history of domestic battery and violations of protection orders; the 37-year-old suspect was released from the Stateville Correctional Center just a day before the shooting. "She was a lovable woman; her son was very well-mannered and spoke to me all the time," a neighbor recollected in her conversation with the Chicago Sun-Times.
As the neighborhood grapples with the reality of the violence, a woman preferring to stay unnamed, recounted the terrifying ordeal stating to CBS News Chicago, "I heard the screaming, I heard someone screaming for help, and then I just heard sirens. So I was like, 'Hey, the police or the ambulance have gotten tooken care of it, and that's about it. And to walk out, and it's a homicide, it's very sad." Citizens and officials alike are awaiting justice for the young soul lost and for the woman fighting for her life.
