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Sep 2, 2008 8:13 pm US/Central
3 People Interviewed In 10-Year-Old's Shooting
CHICAGO (STNG) ―
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Nequiel Fowler, 10, was fatally shot while walking in her South Side neighborhood September 1, 2008.
Chicago Police were interviewing three persons of interest about the shooting death of a 10-year-old girl in the South Chicago neighborhood.
Nequiel Fowler was shot while walking in the 8700 block of South Exchange with her 5-year-old sister, Valerie Williams, who is blind. The shots were fired from a gangway on the block, and pierced the young girl's chest, family said Tuesday. Nequiel bled to death in front of neighbors and her younger sister, who stood just feet away, holding on to a gate near the gangway.
"She could feel something was wrong," said Linda Williams, Nequiel's mother. "She said that she knew her sister had fell, and just told her to stop playing and get up."
Witnesses also said that when Valerie emerged from behind the gate, she felt around for her sister, ultimately falling to her knees by Nequiel's side and feeling around her face.
"She was always with Nequiel, holding on to her pocket to keep up with her," said Latasha Jones, whose daughter was a playmate of Nequiel. "She asked later on, 'My sister Nee-Nee died, didn't she?'
"She felt that. She knew. And that baby can't even see anything."
Nequiel was the second young girl to be killed in two days on Chicago's streets. Eternity Gaddy, 13, was shot and killed overnight Monday outside her aunt's house in Humboldt Park.
A 16-year-old boy also was shot and killed over the weekend while playing basketball at a Morgan Park park.
The shootings of the girls are believed to be gang-related.
Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan said he was going to try to visit Nequiel's school, Arnold Mireles Elementary, as he made his rounds on the first day of class for public school students.
"It's the hardest thing I do — walk into a room where there is an empty desk,'' Duncan said at an opening-day event this morning with Mayor Daley. "Children today have to live with a level of fear that is staggering. … We have far too many children today who talk about if I grow up, not when."
Daley also denounced the shootings this weekend.
"These gangs don't care about your kids or anybody else's children," said Daley, who opened the first day of school at Sir Miles Davis Academy in Englewood. "They are the enemy of society. You may wave to them or approach them. You may know them. But they're going to shoot somebody else. They don't care who they shoot.''
Neighbors on the block said Nequiel and her younger sister had just left David Johnson's home, where she often plays with his 8-year-old son.
They were heading out to play somewhere else, Johnson said. His son remained at home, but Johnson was returning from the store when the little girl was shot.
"I saw them put her in an ambulance, not breathing," Johnson said. "It made me extremely, extremely mad. She was like a little niece or daughter to me."
Johnson said Nequiel was always "out and about" on the block and was "ambitious."
Police also have recovered a weapon nearby and are checking to see if it was linked to the shooting.
(Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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