19-Year-Old Man Charged With Murder Of 11-Year-Old Takiya Holmes

By Stephen Gossett in News on Feb 15, 2017 3:57PM

A 19-year-old man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of 11-year-old Takiya Holmes.

Antwan C. Jones was charged at around 2 a.m., police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Tribune.

Holmes was one of three children shot in Chicago within three days.

Takiya was sitting in her mother’s parked car at around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday, along with her mother, younger brother and aunt, in the 6300 block of South King Drive, in Parkway Gardens, when shots rang out. The other family members were not injured, but Takiya was struck in the head. She died from the wound on Tuesday morning at Comer Children’s Hospital.

Holmes was not the intended target, police said.

A memorial, organized by Assata’s Daughters, was held at Parkway Gardens for Takiya on Tuesday evening.

Also on Saturday, about 30 minutes earlier, Kanari Gentry Bowers, 12, suffered a gunshot wound to the head while playing basketball on a West Englewood court. She remains in critical condition at Stroger Hospital. On Tuesday, two-year-old Lavontay White was fatally shot in North Lawndale in a car as his aunt streamed video on Facebook Live.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke out against the shootings, urged those with information about the shootings to step forward, and called on state government for “meaningful gun control” and sentencing laws.

"One victim of one shooting is one too many, but when innocent children are caught in the crossfire of gun violence and young people have their childhood stolen by stray bullets, our consciences are shaken and our hearts are broken,” Emanuel said in a statement. “Every parent, regardless of where they live, should be able to take their child for a walk to the park or a ride in the car. These are normal rites of passage of childhood.”