Girl, 11, killed by stray bullet days after cousin spoke out about Chicago gun violence
Takiya Holmes, an 11-year-old honours student who loved to sing and dance, died Tuesday after she was hit in the head by a stray bullet to the head while sitting in a parked car with her mom, aunt and brother in Chicago's Parkway Gardens neighbourhood Saturday evening.
She was rushed to Comer Children's Hospital, where her mother Naikeeia Williams posted heart-wrenching updates on Facebook from her bedside.
At 8:17 a.m. Tuesday, the little girl "passed away in her mother's arms," her cousin Rachel Williams posted on Facebook.
Just two days earlier, Rachel Williams, a community activist, was at a town hall meeting, passionately calling out city officials for failing to curb gun violence in Chicago.
It's a battle that just got a lot more personal.
"You know, you get emotional doing it for other families and and working with other families," she told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann. "It hurts a hell of a lot more when it's yours."
I blame politicians. I blame people who have the money, who have the power.- Rachel Williams, cousin of victim
Speaking from the hospital, where Takiya's classmates have been dropping off cards, she fondly remembered her little cousin, who has been a close part of her life since she was 14.
"She loved everyone so fully and so wholly that any person she came in contact with, she gave them love," she said. "She made such a powerful impact on so many folks that it's still so and it'll be so for many years to come."
On the same day Takiya was shot, about six kilometres away, Kanari Gentry Bowers, 12, was struck in the head by a stray bullet while playing basketball with friends. As of Tuesday, she remained on life support and has not been responsive, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Williams said she hopes "there will be a better outcome for her than there was for us."
'No one should be going through this'
But nothing will ever get better unless those in power step up, she said.
"I blame politicians. I blame people who have the money, who have the power. I blame them because they choose to help escalate a problem that's already happening. They choose to help escalate joblessness and crime and poverty," she said.
Chicago saw 762 homicides in 2016, an average of two murders per day, the most killings in the city for two decades and more than New York and Los Angeles combined, Fox News reports. The city also saw 1,100 more shooting in 2016 than it did in 2015.
Chicago needs full-time jobs to prevent people turning to criminal activity, she said, and mental health facilities to deal with what she calls a "mental health crisis nobody wants to talk about."
"We shouldn't be here. No one should be here. No one should be going through this, but we are," she said.
"But until folks want to address not only the surface issues, but also the underlying issues, we are going to be sitting right here. We're going to have this conversation over and over again."
In the meantime, she worries about Takiya's three-year-old brother, who was in the car when his sister was shot, and told his family she was "breathing blood."
"How do you explain to him that his sister's not coming back?" she said. "It hurts."