Perilous
Times
Teen dies in shooting but doctors deliver son: 'The baby is
fighting for his life'
Friends of Charinez Jefferson, 17, who was shot and killed while
walking with a group of friends on the 3000 block of West 64th
Street, put up a memorial at the shooting site on Thursday.
(William DeShazer/Chicago Tribune / August 17, 2011)
A teenager six months pregnant was shot and killed in the
Marquette Park neighborhood on the South Side, but doctors were
able to deliver her son, authorities said.
"The baby is pretty much fighting for his life," Debbie Jefferson
said of her grandson. "He lost some oxygen and the doctors say
there could be health issues. I believe in God, I believe
everything is going to be OK."
Jefferson's daughter, Charinez Jefferson, 17, had just gone out to
the store Tuesday night and was talking to friends when a car
drove up and shots rang out.
"I really don't know what happened," Jefferson said. "She was
going to the corner store. She stopped to talk to a guy she knew
and someone drove up and opened fire. That's what I've been told.
I got down there but they already roped it off. I couldn't get to
her.
"I don't believe she was the intended target. She was in the wrong
place at the wrong time."
Police said Charinez Jefferson was walking with a group of friends
in the 3000 block of West 64th Street at about 10:35 p.m. when a
gunman got out of a car and ran up, firing, said News Affairs
Officer Ronald Gaines.
"One of them yelled, 'He's got a got a gun,' and everyone
scattered, Gaines said.
Jefferson was found lying on the street with gunshot wounds to her
body and head, said Fire Department spokesman Will Knight. When
paramedics arrived, she was in full cardiac arrest.
Charinez Jefferson was placed on advanced life support and taken
to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn as paramedics worked
to save the baby, Knight said.
Jefferson was declared dead at 11:11 p.m. at the hospital, but
doctors were able to deliver the baby.
"It was a valiant effort by our emergency department team -- the
physicians and nurses and therapists -- to deliver the baby
successully from a patient who was lethally shot," hospital
spokesman Mike Maggio said. "Now, in the case of the baby, all we
can do is wait and see."
Charinez Jefferson was entering her 7th month, and the baby
weighed 7 pounds and 3 ounces, according to her mother.
This was her second child. Charinez had a boy when she was 16 and
he is now 16 months, Jefferson said. "She was a wonderful mother.
She was outgoing, she was a leader."
Her daughter was attending classes and intended to resume them
after the baby was born. "She would have been a junior this year."
Police said they don't know if Jefferson was the intended target.
No arrrests have been made.