Mother, 1-Year-Old Daughter Shot On Far South Side
UPDATED 04/12/12 11:14 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A mother and her 1-year-old daughter were shot in their beds while they slept early Thursday, and their family is furious at the act of violence.
As CBS 2's Susanna Song reports, the 1-year-old baby, Jaliyah Allen, spent about four hours in surgery Thursday morning. The family says the surgery went well.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Nancy Harty reports
Podcast
As of 11 a.m., Jaliyah was in the intensive care unit at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. One stray bullet went through the side of her head and into her mother's thigh.
Jaliyah and her mother, Tonishia Allen, 24, were shot as they slept in a rear bedroom at their house on Calumet Avenue at 119th Street.
Police say someone fired shots through the window around 1:20 a.m. Thursday.
"My little niece is 1 year old, battling for her life," said Katina Allen, Jaliyah's aunt.
She is outraged after the shooting, as is the girl's great grandfather, Omiah Newman.
"It came through the side of the house not the window, but the side of the house, right where the bed is at," he said.
Jaliyah's injuries were alarming, family members said.
"It came from the back and came out the jaw," Katina Allen said. "She was just bleeding from the head, and my sister was laying on the floor."
Tonishia Allen is in college studying to be a pharmacy technician. He family says she and Jaliyah often slept together in the same bed in the back room.
Police say they do not know who was targeted in the shooting. Several family members were home sleeping at the time, including Jaliyah's grandparents.
"People just shoot to be shooting. I don't have information as far as that is concerned," Newman said. "Whoever did it needs to be found."
"She means a whole lot to me. It's senseless how they're shooting out here and they're hurting other people – babies and stuff. Its' crazy," added Jaliyah's grandmother, Tina Cornell. "We were asleep we all were I the bed."
This is the second time the family is dealing with this kind of grief. In 2007, another daughter, Tonishia's sister, was shot and killed on the city's South Side.
"Four years ago, we lost a daughter to violence, and this thing has come back to haunt us again," Newman said.
The family is praying now that Jaliyah heals completely.
"Adorable, beautiful baby girl," said Jaliyah's aunt, Pamela Enge.
Jaliyah's mother still has a bullet lodged in her thigh. She was treated and discharged from Advocate Christ, but she is not going anywhere; she is staying by her daughter's side.
Jaliyah was in stable condition as of 11 a.m., as doctors tried to de-swell her head.
No one was in custody in the case as of 11 a.m.
