An 11-year-old girl remained in intensive care Monday, one day after being shot in her head by a stray bullet that smashed through a window in her family’s Englewood home.
“I’m tired. I haven’t slept,” Brenda Ibarra, the girl’s mother, told the Sun-Times. “I feel like if I blink, something bad is going to happen. I’m scared for my baby. She’s just a little girl.”
The bullet is still lodged in Daejah Blizzard’s head, said Ibarra, and she is intubated in the ICU at Comer Children’s Hospital. Doctors are waiting for some of the swelling in her brain to lessen before they consider taking it out, she said. Though her condition has stabilized, Daejah remains in critical condition.
The girl was inside her home in the 2000 block of West 68th Place around 3:50 p.m. Sunday when she was struck by a bullet that came from outside the home, police said Sunday evening at a news conference.
Families from two homes were arguing when a man fired at his neighbor, according to a police report.
“The good thing is that she’s alive, and she’s moving,” Ibarra said. “She hears us, and that’s a blessing.”
Meanwhile, residents along the 2000 block of West 68th Place were still in shock.
Latrice Pierce, who lives across the street, said she called the police when she heard gunshots.
“I had to call the police two times; it took at least 10 minutes for them to get here,” she said.
Pierce said she had never heard any of her neighbors fight or argue in the past.
“It was chaos. The mom was crying, and it’s sad because you’re neighbors, and I don’t think that it was that serious of an argument for him to shoot through someone’s house,” Pierce said.
Another neighbor, Santiago Martinez, said he was hosting a family party when the shots were fired.
“I had heard some yelling, and then a bit later we heard like five or six shots,” Martinez said. “I went to check what happened, and I saw the mom crying and yelling that they had shot her daughter.”
Martinez said he was friendly with Daejah’s family, and they had even rented a trampoline from him in the past.
“I’ve lived here for two years, and nothing like this has ever happened before,” Martinez said.
A squad car was seen parked near the home late Monday afternoon.
Rachel Kennedy, a spokesperson for Daejah’s family, said police would be close by as a precaution for potential retaliation.
Area 1 Chicago Police Cmdr. Arleseuia Watson told reporters at the hospital Sunday night detectives were still questioning witnesses, and she asked the public for help.
“Her family is going through the most unimaginable thing right now, and we need the support of the city,” she said.
Community activist Andrew Holmes said Daejah was the second young child to be shot over the weekend. A 10-year-old boy was in a home in the Burnside neighborhood on the Far South Side Friday evening when shots were fired outside, and a bullet hit him in his chest.
“Both these children should be in school tomorrow with a book, not in a hospital with a bullet,” he said Sunday night. “Stop protecting these individuals that are discharging these weapons. ... How about protecting your children?
“I spoke with the mother. I spoke with the father,” Holmes added. “They are totally upset, in shock.”
Police said a weapon was recovered at the scene, and two people were taken in for questioning. No charges have been announced.
