Police and Media Resort to Victim-Blaming in Shooting Death of Chicago Infant

Rania Khalek

Jonylah Watkins, just 6-months-old, was shot on Monday, March 11, on Chicago’s South Side as her dad changed her diaper in the front passenger’s seat of their minivan.

She was rushed to the hospital where she underwent several surgeries, blood transfusions and resuscitations.

Jonylah’s tiny body was pierced with bullet wounds that tore through her lung, liver, leg, shoulder and bowel. Doctors and nurses struggled for 17 hours to save her life but her body couldn’t take it. She died Tuesday morning.

Jonylah’s father, 28-year-old Jonathan Watkins, was also shot and rushed to the hospital where he was in serious-to-critical condition. He was released in stable condition on Thursday and headed straight to the police station to cooperate with authorities in finding his daughter’s killer. Yet in the eyes of the police and the media, Jonylah’s murder is her father’s fault.

Jonathan Watkins w/his baby girl, Jonylah

In the immediate aftermath of the Jonylah’s death, the media obsessed over her father’s past criminal history and his ties to the the Gangster Disciples, a Chicago street gang, leading to speculation that he was the target of a rival gang. CBS Chicago even referred to him, not by name, but as “the reputed gang member“.

This speculation came directly from police who, just hours after Jonylah’s death, told reporters that Watkins’s extensive criminal record proves he was the intended target.

“When these events happen, we have to look at the circumstances and the backgrounds of the individuals that are involved,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy at a press conference on Tuesday. “Although there’s a lot of angles that we’re pursuing, there are very strong gang overtones to this particular event.” He insisted that the shooting wasn’t random and that “whoever was doing this was firing at the father and exclusively at the father.”

Meanwhile, the family’s spokesperson, Pastor Corey Brooks, has repeatedly informed the media that Watkins is not a gang member and his criminal past is far behind him.

“Brooks said that Watkins is not affiliated with any of Chicago’s four major street gangs, and has not had any trouble with the law since 2007,” reports ABC Radio News. Nevertheless, “Chicago police said they are not retracting any of McCarthy’s statements on Watkins or the shooting.”

That hasn’t stopped mainstream news outlets like  NBC Chicago from laying out Watkins’s criminal history as told by the police:

Records show Jonathan Watkins has been arrested 39 times and has ties to the Gangster Disciples. Numerous weapons violations and an attempt to steal his car back from police after it was impounded are among the charges.

Watkins, 28, also doesn’t hold a valid Illinois driver’s license and shouldn’t have been driving when he pulled over to change his daughter’s diaper at about 12:45 Monday afternoon.

The unconfirmed claim about his alleged gang association was accompanied by a mugshot, just in case readers had any doubt that this black father is a bad man.

NBC Chicago added that “Authorities said Watkins has so far been uncooperative in providing information as to who shot him.”

Instead of contacting Watkin’s—who was in the hospital in critical condition at the time of the report—to confirm this, NBC painted him as a “gang-banger” unwilling to help police find the person who murdered his daughter.

According to court records, Watkins was arrested in 2007 for illegal possession of a handgun he told police he needed for protection, which landed him in prison for three years. All other media accusations against Watkins appear to be based solely on unconfirmed police claims.

Watkins was further vilified in the Chicago Sun-Times, which cited an unnamed “top police source” who says, “Watkins is giving the police just enough to seem to be cooperating,” but in reality he’s “unwilling to cooperate” because he refused to give police his cell phone.

Again, there doesn’t appear to have been an attempt to contact the family for comment, which is journalistic malpractice at best, especially since the person making these allegations is doing so behind a veil of unjustified  anonymity.

In the aftermath of this horrific tragedy, perhaps it’s easier to blame Jonathan Watkins for his baby girl’s murder because such a conclusion allows people to dismiss Jonylah’s death as a tragedy that only happens to the children of criminal parents. In other words, there’s no need for non-gang member white parents to worry because this would never happen to them or their children.

But in reality, Jonathan Watkins and his wife, Judy, are victims of gun violence—just like the parents of 7-year-old Heaven Sutton, 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton and the 20 children massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary school in December—regardless of his past. Otherizing Jonylah’s parents, as we often do to parents of color, isn’t going to change that.

On a side note, Lupe Fiasco released a new song, titled “Jonylah Forever”, dedicated to the memory of Jonylah Watkins and what her life could have been.