Sandy MaloneChicago, IL – The suspect in the murder of seven-year-old Jaslyn Adams was fatally shot by police on Thursday after a chase during which the suspect crashed his car and tried to carjack a family sitting in traffic on the Eisenhower Expressway.
Jaslyn was sitting in a car with her father, in line at a McDonald’s drive-thru, at about 4 p.m. on April 18 in the Homan Square neighborhood when the suspect opened fire on the vehicle, WMAQ reported.
Police said the car was riddled with bullet holes through the back window and the trunk, WFLD reported.
The little girl, a student at Cameron Elementary School, was shot multiple times.
Jaslyn was rushed to Stroger Hospital where she died, the Daily Mail reported.
Her father, Jontae Adams, who was believed to have been the target of the gunman, sustained one gunshot wound but survived, WMAQ reported.
Jaslyn’s grandmother, Lawanda McMullen, called the gunman a coward and said he knew the little girl was with her father when they opened fire.
“It was a cowardly act. I know they saw her in the car,” McMullen told people at a vigil in memory of Jaslyn on Wednesday night, according to WMAQ.
“When kids are involved, someone needs to step up and talk,” Jaslyn’s grandmother said. “It’s time to stop the ‘no snitching’ code. Just tell someone.”
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said officers were conducting surveillance on Thursday on a suspect in the shooting in the western suburbs of Chicago when he suddenly tried to flee, WMAQ reported.
Police said the suspect crashed his vehicle on Eisenhower Expressway between Manheim Road and 25th Avenue and then jumped out of it and tried to carjack a family that was stuck in the traffic caused by the wreck.
The suspect was stopped and confronted by police and at least one Chicago police officer opened fire, WMAQ reported.
Superintendent Brown said the suspect sustained multiple gunshot wounds, WFLD reported.
“Officers confronted the suspect, the suspect was struck multiple times by the officer’s weapon,” the superintendent said.
Police said the suspect had been transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries but no details on his condition have been released, WMAQ reported
Superintendent Brown said police recovered two weapons at the scene.
Jaslyn’s father attended the vigil in his daughter’s memory on April 21 and called for the gunman who killed his little girl to be brought to justice, WMAQ reported.
He also complained that reporters were making Jaslyn’s death about him rather than her killer.
“I see more articles about me being a bad parent than about the people, the guys, who killed my baby,” Adams said. “This is not my friends I am losing. This is my daughter. All these cameras out here, I want to use them to get justice for my baby.”
He also shared a Facebook post calling his late daughter his “protector,” the Daily Mail reported.
Superintendent Brown addressed Adams’ comments without calling him by name during a press conference, WFLD reported.
“This is really about people who are living the criminal life and their conflicts, and putting their precious babies in the car with them,” the police superintendent said.
Police have said they believed Adams was the killer’s intended target in the fast-food drive-thru, not his daughter, the Daily Mail reported.
Court records showed Jaslyn’s father was arrested on suspicion of manufacturing and dealing heroin twice in 2012 and twice in 2013.
Adams was convicted of an unspecified drugs offense in 2016, the Daily Mail reported.
He was arrested again for possession of heroin in 2018.
Adams was also one of several suspect gang members who was arrested in 2012 for running an open-air heroin market in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood, the Daily Mail reported.
Holly Matkin
