A 13-year-old girl was tragically killed after she was hit in the neck by a stray bullet. Amaria Jones was in her Chicago apartment with her family and was in the middle of teaching her mom a TikTok dance when a bullet came through the apartment’s window and through a TV before hitting the teen. Sadly, she died soon after.
- The shooting seems to have been random. According to local news reports, two teenage boys were sitting outside the apartment building when another man saw a red light pointing at him and heard gunshots. A 15-year-old boy was shot in his lower back while a 16-year-old boy had a gunshot injury on his left leg. Both were expected to make a full recovery after being taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.
- Amaria’s mother, Lawanda Jones, is obviously devastated. Talking to CBS Chicago, she recalled the moment she realized Amaria had been shot, saying, “She was showing me this dance called TikTok. I turned around and I was looking for her and she was on the ground reaching out like this, holding her neck. I was like, ‘What?! What?! What?!’ […] The last thought that I have of my baby is her reaching out with blood gushing out her neck.”
- Lawanda is furious at how violence is ruining Chicago and taking innocent lives. “They talk about the police killing — killing our citizens. They’re killing each other off. Our kids are not safe no more. Period. You can’t sit on your porch. You can’t even be in your own house. You’ll get killed,” she said. “[…] To the other parents whose kids got shot — my heart goes out to them too, because don’t nobody know what it’s like unless you are in these shoes, to lose a child. You might sympathize with us, but you ain’t going to feel the pain until it actually happens.”
- An incredible 78 people were shot between June 19 and June 21. Out of those people, 11 died, including a 3-year-old boy named Mekhi James. A vigil was held on Monday, June 22 for both Mekhi and Amaria.
- This is such a tragic story. Amaria was only 13. She was a child with so much more life left to live. According to ABC7, she wanted to grow up to be a lawyer but those dreams were cut short when she was taken from her mother and this world as a whole in a random act of senseless violence. This is such a shame.
Say their names#AmariaJones #MekhiJames
Rest in peace ❤😔 pic.twitter.com/P6P0RMoKtx— BaburB (@BaburRealer) June 23, 2020
