June 01--Dressed in a bright pink coat and strapped to a gurney, Jacele Johnson waved good-bye as the 4-year-old was released from the hospital Monday morning, 10 days after she was shot in the head while sitting in a car in Englewood.
Jacele's mother, Trennetta Gresham, stepped out of the ambulance to share some parting words as she and her daughter headed for Minneapolis, where the family is moving.
"I knew that she was a fighter the whole time," Gresham told reporters. "I never gave up on her and she never gave up on me."
"Thanks to God's angels and Comer Hospital, we're on our way home now," she said.
Gresham also had some last words for the city of Chicago.
I just want to tell everyone to stop the violence," she said. "Stop killing our children in our city please. ... Please put the guns down because you're killing our future and our city."
Jacele was wounded just before 8 p.m. May 22 during what authorities called a gang-related shooting in the 7000 block of South Justine Street in the Englewood neighborhood.
The 4-year-old was sitting in her mother's car outside a prom party, family members said. Jacele was pretending to drive the car with her cousin when someone inside a passing vehicle opened fire on the car, according to police and family.
Jacele was not the target of the shooting, police said. Her cousin, a 17-year-old boy sitting in the car with her, was also hit by gunfire in his neck and chest. He was listed in serious condition after the shooting. A 15-year-old girl also was hit in her head during the shooting, police said.
Jacele was rushed to Comer, where surgeons worked for about 40 minutes to remove bone fragments and repair ruptured blood vessels. Days after the shooting, doctors said the bullet did not penetrate Jacele's brain too deeply but that a portion of the bullet is too dangerous to remove surgically.
Family members said Gresham had planned to move her family to Minneapolis from Chicago the very next week.
Gresham said she had recently moved to Chicago to help a family member open a day care center. She said she had found a home in Minneapolis just before attending the party Friday evening.
