Family, friends, and community members gathered to mourn Wednesday after 8-year-old Dajore Wilson was shot to death earlier this week near the intersection of 47th and South Union.
Activists, neighbors, supporters, loved ones and family gathered for a prayerful vigil Wednesday night to honor her memory, and to call on the individuals responsible for her death to come forward to face justice.
“Put the guns down, man,” David Wilson, the girl’s cousin, said. “I’m tired of these guns. We shouldn’t have our kids not being able to ride their bikes in their front yards.”
Wilson was in an SUV Monday afternoon when a person in a black Dodge Charger fired more than a dozen shots at the vehicle she was riding in. Police believe that the shooting was gang-related, but said that Wilson was not the intended target of the shooting.
She was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital, while her brother and her father were both hospitalized with injuries suffered in the shooting.
Wilson’s mother was at the vigil Wednesday night. Her father remains hospitalized at the University of Chicago Medical Center, but is expected to be released Thursday. He has taken to social media to plead for justice in the fatal shooting, and his sentiments were echoed by those at the vigil.
“I have three daughters of my own, and my cousin lost his only daughter. It hurts,” David Wilson said.
