Letter provider Sharralle Williams was delivering mail alongside a brand new route in South Shore final Thursday, when she obtained an alert from the Citizen app that somebody close by was unconscious and wanted assist.
She noticed a frantic lady throughout the road and Williams shortly went over to her, and the lady requested if she knew CPR.
Williams, a former childcare supplier who had been skilled within the life-saving approach for the previous decade, went inside the home anticipating to search out an grownup having a coronary heart assault.
As an alternative, when she entered the house, she noticed a boy — later recognized as 8-year-old Josiah Hooker — with a gunshot wound to his head. Authorities mentioned he and his brothers had been taking part in with a loaded gun — allegedly omitted by his stepfather — when Josiah was shot.
Williams began chest compressions and instructed his panicked stepfather, Derrick Taylor, to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and to breathe “for the child.”
As she was performing chest compressions, she mentioned the minutes felt like years. Paramedics arrived and took over and later rushed the boy to Comer Youngsters’s Hospital, the place he was pronounced useless.
“I misplaced deal with everybody else,” Williams, who has labored for the U.S. Postal Service for six years, advised the Solar-Instances on Monday. “It’s a child, he regarded like he was my child’s age. … I can’t get it out of my head.”
Sharralle Williams performs with certainly one of her sons Monday at Grand Crossing Park. Williams had been skilled in CPR and responded instantly upon getting an alert on the Citizen app final week. She likened capturing sufferer Josiah Hooker to her personal boys, ages 7 and 9.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Solar-Instances
A member of the family mentioned Josiah, who was the second oldest of his siblings, cherished to learn and was an open-minded and curious child. He was shut together with his siblings and his cousins. They spent numerous time collectively, constructing forts and taking part in outdoors.
“He was simply the most effective child with a giant coronary heart,” mentioned his father’s aunt, Rennea Finley, “probably the most lovely boy.”
Father charged with endangerment
Authorities have since charged Taylor, 32, with little one endangerment. At a court docket listening to Monday, prosecutors mentioned Josiah had been taking part in together with his little brothers of their dwelling within the 1400 block of East 71st Place round 5:20 p.m. final Thursday after they discovered the gun.
Taylor, who was caring for the youngsters allegedly left the gun, loaded, on the dresser behind a tv, prosecutors mentioned.
He gave the youngsters a snack after which went to take a nap, authorities mentioned.
About 20 minutes later, he awoke to the sound of a single gunshot and two of the youngsters screaming. He discovered Josiah mendacity in a pool of blood with the firearm close by. He instantly disarmed the weapon and commenced rendering assist to Josiah. He picked the boy up and carried him outdoors yelling for assist.
Each Josiah and his 5-year-old brother, who suffered a minor harm, have been taken to Comer, however the brother was shortly handled and launched, Taylor’s household mentioned.
Police recovered a single shell casing on the dwelling. Taylor was taken into custody and allegedly admitted to police that he had left the gun unsecured on the dresser, in keeping with prosecutors.
Taylor was additionally charged with possession of a weapon by a felon. He was convicted twice for housebreaking — first in 2010 in Cook dinner County and once more in downstate Vermilion County in 2017, prosecutors mentioned.
Taylor and his fiancée dwell within the South Shore dwelling with their seven youngsters. They share the 2 youngest youngsters, ages 10 months and one yr. The 5 others, together with Josiah, are Taylor’s stepchildren, in keeping with his household. Six of the youngsters are at the moment dwelling with Taylor’s mom.
Taylor’s family, a number of of whom sat in a courtroom contained in the Leighton Legal Courthouse on Monday for Taylor’s first court docket look, deny that the gun belonged to him and say his fiancée left their dwelling Thursday with out waking him as much as let him know she was leaving. In addition they deny he has a second housebreaking conviction.
“They’re attempting to color an unsightly image of my son that’s simply not true,” his mom, Ineather Johnson, advised the Solar-Instances outdoors the listening to. “My son loves these youngsters dearly. He’s their daddy. He bent over backwards for these youngsters.”
Cook dinner County Circuit Decide Susana Ortiz ordered Taylor held till his trial. Ortiz acknowledged that Taylor is remorseful over what occurred. Other than a small smile when he noticed his household within the gallery, Taylor cried all through his court docket look.
“By legislation, as a felon, he shouldn’t have a firearm,” Ortiz mentioned. “Youngsters don’t know the implications of their actions. However adults ought to know higher. Mr. Taylor couldn’t take the best step of placing that firearm someplace else and out of attain from the youngsters.”
Rennea Finley, the aunt of Derek Taylor, stands outdoors the Leighton Legal Courthouse on Monday. Taylor has been charged with little one endangerment within the capturing dying of 8-year-old Josiah Hooker and the wounding of a 5-year-old boy. Finley mentioned Taylor cherished youngsters and volunteered together with her nonprofit for at-risk youth.
Anthony Vazquez/Solar-Instances
Taylor’s aunt, Rennea Finley, advised the Solar-Instances that Taylor is damaged up by what occurred.
“Derek volunteers with my nonprofit,” mentioned Finley, who works with at-risk youngsters. “He mentors the children and works with them with our basketball program. Derek has at all times cherished youngsters. That’s why he took on her 5 youngsters.”
‘I really feel for his household’
Williams, the letter provider, was credited by prosecutors with calling 911.
After performing CPR, she left and went to her dwelling in Grand Crossing, the place she lives together with her two sons, ages 7 and 9. She solely discovered later that night time from her co-workers that the boy had died. She has not had any additional contact with Josiah’s household.
“I had prayed I used to be positioned there for a motive,” Williams mentioned, noting she usually delivers mail in Grand Crossing however had been working time beyond regulation. “I don’t know what occurred, I simply know there’s a little bit boy injured and a little bit boy gone. … I really feel for his household.”
