"I can't lose both of them": Newborn clinging to life after mother Kyla O'Neal fatally shot outside Lakeville Amazon facility
MINNEAPOLIS -- A Minneapolis family is grappling with an unimaginable tragedy.
A pregnant mother was shot and killed Sunday, just days before she was due to deliver a baby boy.
Doctors successfully delivered Kyla O'Neal's baby, and that newborn is clinging to life.
"I need him to pull through this," said Katina O'Neal, Kyla's mother. "I want him to. I can't lose both of them, not right now, no."
Police say Kyla O'Neal was shot in the parking lot of the Amazon warehouse in Lakeville. She died at the hospital where her son, Messiah, was born.
"He lost a lot of oxygen to the brain, so he has no brain functioning right now," Katina said. "I'm holding onto faith. I'm praying. God got the last word, so hopefully He gives him to me."
Messiah and his three siblings are now without a mother, who the family says was driven, outspoken and good at whatever she put her mind to.
"All she ever thought about doing was making a life for her and her kids," Katina said. "She was looking forward to this birth."
Police say Kyla's fiancé, the father of newborn Messiah and another daughter, was with Kyla when officers responded to the 911 call.
"He's been interviewed. He's been cooperating with us," said Cmdr. Bill Gerl with the Lakeville Police Department. "He is in custody right now at the Dakota County Jail being held on second-degree manslaughter charges."
Katina says Kyla ended the relationship hours before she died.
"She didn't deserve what happened to her," Katina said. "She had a promising future."
Authorities Tuesday charged Donte McCray, 32, of St. Louis Park, with murder in the second degree.
Amazon confirmed that he is an employee there, and the company's working with police.
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For anonymous, confidential help, people can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224.
