Toddler Shot in Mass Chicago Shooting ‘Doing Better'

A 3-year-old boy who was shot in the head during Thursday’s mass Chicago shooting is “doing better,” a family spokesman said Saturday.

Deonta Howard -- known as "Tay-man" -- was shot in the jaw and listed in critical condition after witnesses said several gunmen opened fire at a group gathered at Cornell Square Park, on the 1800 block of W. 51st Street, shortly before 10:15 p.m. Thursday.

The victims included 10 males and three females, including Howard, who was with his mother at the time of the shooting.

The family's pastor, Rev. Corey Brooks, a spokesman for the family, said the toddler is “doing OK” after two surgeries but is not able to eat or watch TV yet.

"They shot my baby in the face with a gun that stands taller than him," Howard’s mother, Shamarah Leggett, said Friday. "For my baby's sake, turn themselves in."

The crime statistics hit close to home for the family of the youngest victim of the city's latest high-profile shooting. Howard's grandmother, Semehca Nunn, said she lost her son to gun violence earlier this month.

"It needs to stop," Nunn said as she broke into tears. 'Y'all are out here killing these innocent people: kids, parents, grandparents, mothers, fathers. It's got to stop. Y'all need to stop."

Thursday's shooting happened nearly three weeks after a deadly Labor Day weekend left dozens injured and at least seven people were killed, including Howard's uncle, the family said.

"I just buried my son, and now I'm going through something else," Nunn said.

Leggett asked that anyone who knows of anything that can help with investigation calls police.

"I just want a person, anybody that knows anything, to help," she said.
 

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