17-Year-Old Charged In Shooting Of 6-Year-Old Girl
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 17-year-old boy has been charged in the shooting of a 6-year-old girl in the Logan Square neighborhood.
Jaylene Bermeo was shot in the back during a drive-by while playing in Logan Square on Monday night. Police sources said the shooter was gunning for rival gang members who were holed up in a house on the 2100 block of North Bingham Street, but hit Jaylene instead.
The 17-year-old was arrested Tuesday after he was identified as the driver. On Wednesday, he was charged with aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm, a felony.
Cook County prosecutors said the 17-year-old was charged as a juvenile, and would appear in Juvenile Court on Thursday. Earlier, police had said he would be charged as an adult.
Meantime, Jaylene's condition was steadily improving at Stroger Hospital.
Marisel Melendez called her granddaughter's survival a miracle. Melendez said the trauma surgeon at Stroger Hospital "was lost for words" because Jaylene didn't lose her life.
"He was stuttering. He's like, 'I never seen this before. I never seen someone survive; especially 6-year-old," she said. "He was like, 'It's a miracle.'"
Jaylene was doing better Thursday morning. After surgery, the bullet was still lodged just centimeters from her heart, One of Jaylene's lungs collapsed, but doctors have already been able take her off the breathing machine allowing her to breathe on her own.
"They left the machine on the side of her bed, and I said, 'Take it away, we're not going to need it,' and sure enough we haven't needed it," Melendez said.
Even so, she knows her granddaughter faces a long, potentially difficult recovery.
"The bullet is still close to her heart, but they're monitoring it to see if it moves away, to be safe to go in and remove it, but right now it's not moving," she said.
While the bullet isn't moving, the tough little 6-year-old continues to move those around her with her seemingly indomitable will to live!
"She's doing very well, compared to the trauma that she's been through, and we're very blessed," Melendez said.
Melendez didn't want to show her face, but had a message for area gang members.
"It's sad. I want this to stop," she said. "My granddaughter survived this, and not a lot of kids do."