Shooting that killed 6-month-old likely gang retaliation, source says BY FRANK MAIN, MITCH DUDEK, LISA DONOVAN, STEFANO ESPOSITO AND FRAN SPIELMAN Staff Reporters 
 
 Updated: 
 
 As teddy bears and balloons piled up Tuesday night near the South Side spot where a 6-month-old girl was fatally shot and her father wounded, detectives continued to scour the Woodlawn neighborhood for leads. 
 
 “We don’t have one individual who is stepping up to help us,” Supt. Garry McCarthy said. 
 
 A police source said Jonathan Watkins may have been targeted in retaliation for alleged links to an earlier robbery and shooting. 
 
 “We’re not clear at this point if he’s cooperating,” McCarthy said of Watkins. 
 
 Watkins was recovering from bullet wounds at Northwestern Memorial Hospital as a funeral was planned for his daughter, Jonylah. 
 
 While police are exploring several different angles to the investigation, McCarthy said Tuesday that “there are very strong gang overtones to this event.” 
 
 Police sources say Watkins, 29, is a gang member who has been arrested 30 times, including once in 2007 police for illegal possession of a 9mm handgun, which he told police he was carrying for protection, court records show. He received a three-year prison sentence. 
 
 Police are tapping the Rev. Corey Brooks, who is acting as the Watkins family spokesman, to assist in obtaining help from hesitant family members. 
 
 On Monday afternoon, Watkins was standing on the curb in the 6500 block of South Maryland, changing his daughter’s diaper on the front passenger seat of a minivan, when a gunman emerged unnoticed from a gangway behind him and opened fire. He and Jonylah were injured. She survived emergency surgery but died Tuesday morning. 
 
 Brooks initially said Jonylah had been shot five times, but a law enforcement report indicates one bullet entered her right shoulder and exited her left buttocks. 
 
 Watkins remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday, with gunshot wounds to the side, buttocks and cheek, but he spoke briefly by phone with the Chicago Sun-Times. 
 
 “I was trying to help. I was trying to help. I was trying to help her,” Jonathan Watkins said in a weak voice shortly after learning that Jonylah had died. 
 
 “They told me she didn’t make it,” Watkins said, his voice cracking with emotion. 
 
 He said he has no idea who shot them, although McCarthy said it appeared that he was the “intended victim.” 
 
 Watkins recently married his wife, Judy, 20, who works at a McDonald’s restaurant. They live in Woodlawn. 
 
 Brooks, who said Jonathan Watkins has two other children from a previous relationship, met with Watkins and his wife Tuesday to pray, but he did not discuss the shooting with them. He is “pretty sedated,” Brooks said. 
 
 “I don’t know him to be in a gang,” said Brooks Tuesday night at a memorial for Jonylah. 
 
 Also on Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the shooting “a senseless, despicable act of violence that is heartbreaking.” 
 
 Although the city saw homicides drop in February by 50 percent from the previous year — a trend continuing into March — Emanuel said that progress in reducing violence “is only one measure.” 
 
 Monday’s shooting was Jonylah’s second brush with gun violence. Judy Watkins was shot in the knee less than three blocks from Monday’s shooting when she was eight months pregnant with Jonylah. 
 
 Jonathan Watkins and his daughter had been visiting friends in the neighborhood when the shooting occurred, said Mary Young, the baby’s maternal grandmother. 
 
 After the shooting, the gunman ran across a vacant lot, hopped into a blue van and drove north. 
 
 On Tuesday, Ald. Willie Cochran (20th), a former Chicago Police officer, said he has taken the unprecedented step of calling on gang leaders to essentially deliver the message that, it’s OK to kill each other, but don’t kill innocent people and certainly not kids. 
 
 Cochran was joined by several other African-American aldermen and a former gang member at a City Hall news conference to condemn the murder.. 
 
 “We’ve talked with some of the gang leaders, and we’ve talked about how important it is for them to not harbor offenders that they know are offenders who have committed crimes associated with innocent victims,” Cochran said. “These are acts that are carried out by people on the street. And on the street is where it has to be dealt with.” 
 
 Cochran said he never talked to the gang leaders about who shot Jonylah. He simply sought and received a “commitment” from them to pass along an important message. 
 
 “Innocent victims are unacceptable. They are out-of-bounds. They’re off-limits,” he said. 
 
 Contributing: Lisa Donovan, Fran Spielman ||||| Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says the father of a slain 6-month-old girl has an extensive criminal background and is a gang member. 
 
 McCarthy spoke at a news conference Tuesday hours after Jonylah Watkins succumbed to her wounds. She was shot five times Monday while her father, Jonathan Watkins, was changing her diaper in the front seat of his minivan. He was wounded and is in serious but stable condition. 
 
 McCarthy says he's not sure whether the Jonathan Watkins will decide to cooperate with police. He says authorities have surveillance video of a blue van believed to be the gunman's getaway vehicle. 
 
 McCarthy says police saturated the neighborhood last night to prevent retaliation for the baby's shooting. 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
 
 A 6-month-old Chicago girl who was shot five times while her father was changing her diaper died of her wounds Tuesday, authorities said. 
 
 Jonylah Watkins died at Comer Children's Hospital, where she underwent surgery following Monday afternoon's attack, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said. Her father, Jonathan Watkins, was also wounded and remained in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. 
 
 Police on Tuesday were scouring the South Side neighborhood of Woodlawn, where the attack happened, for security camera footage or any other clues as to who carried out the attack. 
 
 Witnesses said the gunman approached Jonathan Watkins at around 1 p.m. and opened fire on him while he was standing beside his minivan and changing his daughter's diaper. She was on the front seat. 
 
 Jonathan Watkins was shot in the side and buttocks, and suffered a graze wound to his face. Jonylah was shot five times, in the thigh, shoulder, lung, liver and bowels, the family said. 
 
 It wasn't the family's first brush with Chicago's gun violence. The girl's mother, Judy Watkins, was shot in the knee while she was pregnant with Jonylah, according to the woman's mother, Mary Young. 
 
 "There's too much shooting over there," Young told reporters Monday. Speaking of her granddaughter, she added, "She's nothing but 6 months old. How could anybody _ what kind of heart?" 
 
 Chicago has seen a recent rise in gun violence _ much of it gang-related _ and registered at least 500 homicides last year for the first time since 2008. In 2011, there were 435 homicides. 
 
 Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters Monday that homicides were down 26 percent this year, compared with the same period a year earlier. He was expected to give an update on the latest attack later Tuesday. ||||| This photo of Johnylah Watkins was just captured Sunday, the family said. 
 
 A 6-month-old baby has died after she was shot Monday while her father was changing her diaper. 
 
 After several surgeries, Jonylah Watkins passed away Tuesday morning, Chicago Pastor Corey Brooks confirmed. 
 
 Jonylah's father, identified by family members as 28-year-old Jonathan Watkins, is in stable condition. He was changing the little girl's diaper on the front passenger seat of the family van when the shooting occurred, police said. 
 
 "The city of Chicago should be outraged that a 6-month-old baby could be shot and killed in our city," Brooks said. "It's horrific." 
 
 Father of Slain Baby Arrested 39 Times 
 
 Chicago's police superintendent says shooting that killed Jonylah Watkins has "very strong gang overtones," adding that Jonathan Watkins was the intended target. Phil Rogers reports. (Published Tuesday, March 12, 2013) 
 
 Jonylah and Watkins were both taken to hospitals in critical condition after shots rang out at about 12:45 p.m. Monday on the 6500 block of South Maryland Avenue. Watkins was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Jonylah was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital. 
 
 Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said incident has "very strong gang overtones" and the father, who has an extensive criminal history, was the intended target. Police are pursuing several angles, McCarthy said, and urge anyone with information to call Area Central Detectives at 312-747-8380. 
 
 "This is another tragedy, because no child, certainly not an infant, should be a victim of gun violence," McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. 
 
 Mayor: Baby's Shooting Death 'Despicable' 
 
 In response to the death of a 6-month-old who was shot five times Monday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the fatal shooting was "a senseless, despicable act of violence." (Published Tuesday, March 12, 2013) 
 
 Brooks said the baby's mother, Judy Young, is distraught and in a lot of pain. "We're going to find who did this and make sure they are brought to justice," he said. "We're not going to be afraid. We're going to take back our neighborhood." 
 
 Police are still looking for the shooter, who ran up from behind Watkins, fired, and then took off to a nearby blue conversion van, department spokesman John Mirabelli said. Bullets struck Jonathan Watkins in the buttocks and on the right side of his face. His young daughter was hit five times: in the thigh, shoulder, lung, liver and bowels, the family later said. 
 
 Witnesses reported hearing at least 10 gunshots. 
 
 "I just heard like a lot of shots and skid marks, so that's when I ran to the corner," said Patricia McGowan, who lives near the scene but was at a salon at the time gunfire rang out. "There is always gunshots and crime in the neighborhood, always drug activity in the neighborhood. ... It's heartbreaking. We're looking for a place to move out immediately because that could have easily been me coming from the bus." 
 
 Police said Jonathan Watkins has known gang affiliations. 
 
 The baby's grandmother, Mary Young, said her daughter and Watkins were just recently married. Judy Young was grazed by a bullet in the knee about seven months ago, she said, while Jonylah was still in the womb. 
 
 Pastor Brooks late in the day offered a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the little girl's shooter. Brooks gained notoriety last year for camping out on the roof of a south side motel in an effort to raise money for a community center. 
 
 Earlier in the day, Chicago police Supt. Garry McCarthy touted progress in his department's efforts against crime. As of Monday, shooting incidents in the city are down 19 percent year-over-year, he said. 
 
 "This is a sobering reality we have a lot of work to do even though we're making progress," McCarthy said Tuesday. 
 
 Pastor Corey Brooks and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy react to Jonylah Watkins' death. 
 
 More Local Stories
– Jonathan Watkins was changing his baby daughter's diaper in the front passenger seat of a minivan parked on a Chicago street yesterday when someone opened fire on them. Six-month-old Jonylah Watkins was shot five times, in the thigh, shoulder, lung, liver, and bowels, and "she didn't make it," her father tells the Chicago Sun-Times. "I was trying to help. I was trying to help. I was trying to help her." Watkins, himself in critical condition, says he has no idea who the gunman could have been, though police believe Watkins was the chosen target, reports NBC Chicago. Chicago's police superintendent says that Watkins is a gang member with a lengthy criminal past, reports the AP. In a wrenching twist, the girl had already made it through one shooting: Jonylah's mother, Judy Watkins, was shot in the knee in the same neighborhood when she was eight months pregnant with her daughter; residents say gunfire is common in the area. The gunman fled after the shooting; police are looking into an angry Facebook post that could have prompted the incident, sources say.