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Grim Vigils: Relatives Pull For 2 Girls Shot Over The Weekend

(CBS) – Two young girls remained on life support Monday night after they were seriously wounded in separate shootings Saturday night.

Kanari Gentry Bowers is 12 years old. Takiya Holmes is just 11. Both are innocent victims of Chicago's gun violence.

CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reports.

Both girls were surrounded by family at the hospital, while their communities are taking action.

"There is no reason a child in Chicago can not come to their school playground and play on a Saturday and play basketball," Henderson Elementary Principal Marvis Jackson-Ivy says.

She joined members of the Chicago Police Department and others Monday to demand change.

"Kanari wanted to be a judge. She said that Wednesday," the principal said.

Kanari was shot in the head while playing basketball in the school  playground in an apparent drive-by.

In a separate shooting, 11-year-old Takiya was also shot in the head while in the back seat of a minivan in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood.

"I'm hopeful. But I'm also a realist. If it's meant for her to survive, she will survive this," the girl's grandmother, Patsy Holmes, said.

Takiya's cousin -- community activist Andrew Holmes – offered a $2,000 reward for information leading to the shooter's arrest.

Both families are tackling the tough decision of whether or not to pull these girls off life support.

Chicago police are asking the public for help. Anyone with video of these incidents is asked to come forward.

 

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