Chicago woman who lost daughter to gun violence helps save life of shooting victim
FOX 32 NEWS - A West Side woman who lost her own little girl to street violence helped save the life of another shooting victim Sunday night.
Her dramatic rescue came over a weekend when seven people were shot and killed in Chicago, with another 47 wounded.
“I didn't have a chance with Heaven to try to save her and try to get her to the hospital. Because I couldn't believe that she was hit the way she was hit,” said Ashake Banks.
Four years ago, Banks' 7-year-old daughter, Heaven, was shot and killed while selling candy on the West Side.
On Sunday night, Banks was attending a vigil for another shooting victim when a stray bullet hit 8-year-old Jamia Barnes, the daughter of a close friend. Banks jumped out of her truck with bullets still flying.
“I just got out, it was just my instinct, is to get out of the car. I wasn't thinking about nothing. I was just thinking about those kids, I didn't want to see no more kids laying on the ground, all bloody,” Banks said.
Banks rushed Jamia to the hospital. The little girl had been shot in the wrist and she'll survive, unlike Banks' own daughter four years ago.
“She died right there in my arms. So I just didn't want to really re-live that with this little girl here and I knew that she was still standing up, that she was crying. So I figured she still had a chance. You know, to get her straight to the hospital,” Banks said.
The violence this summer has residents in many neighborhoods rattled, but in Austin Monday, residents were also upset about the police reaction to a small memorial for one of the victims.
The vigil attended by Banks last night was for 14-year-old Malik Causey, who was killed Sunday morning in what police say was a gang related shooting. Friends and relatives created a makeshift memorial, but police told them it had to come down.
“What harm does this do to somebody, we only doing a memorial, he only fourteen. He'a kid. What harm is it going to do to his hood anyway?” asked the victim’s aunt, Shieleen Clinton.
A police spokesperson says the department doesn't discourage such memorials, except when they might provoke retaliation or disrupt traffic. No explanation was given for Monday’s action.
The mayor also once again said that the numbers of people shot and killed are unacceptable. He also said more police officers need to be put on the street.