Several people were being questioned by police after a 12-year-old girl was fatally shot inside a Calumet Heights home Sunday night.
Dalilah Batey had been with another person, described as a male, inside a front bedroom of a home about 8:30 p.m. when she was shot in the head in the 9200 block of South Harper Avenue, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Dalilah, who suffered a gunshot wound to the right side of her head, was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9:19 p.m., police said. An autopsy Monday determined she died of a gunshot wound to her face, and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.
On Monday night in Auburn Gresham, a gathering was held in Dalilah’s memory. More than 100 people holding nearly as many balloons — mostly white, blue and black stars and hearts — filled the better part of two yards.
A white stuffed horse with the word “love” stitched on its side sat next to prayer candles that illuminated pictures of the “princess of all princesses, and queen of all queens.”
Her mother, Ciara Batey, looked at photographs of her daughter. Before the balloons were released the crowd let out a cheer of “we love you, Delilah.”
“They took my baby,” Dalilah’s aunt, Jasmine Batey, said. “She was so happy.”
According to a police report, several people were at the home at the time, including at least one who heard a single gunshot and saw a male exiting the bedroom “shortly thereafter.”
One shell casing and a bloody jacket were found in the bedroom, and two guns were recovered in the backyard, according to the report.
Two officers were seen speaking to a woman in a vehicle near the home Monday morning.
Fisher Hughes Jr., 67, who lives next door, said he woke up about 15 minutes after the shooting and looked outside to see several police officers taking away his next-door neighbor, who is a “young man, about 19 or so,” in handcuffs.
Hughes, who said he doesn’t know Dalilah, told the Sun-Times, “I’m sorry that happened.”
The neighbor Hughes saw apparently being arrested moved to the home with his mother about two years ago and often rides around the block on a scooter wearing all black with a group of males who frequently visit the house.
The resident of five years said he and other neighbors have often witnessed “criminal activity” on the block, including intimidation and a robbery three weeks ago.
The robbery victim, a frantic young woman Hughes doesn’t know, knocked on his door three weeks ago asking for help. She stepped inside his home while he called 911.
Hughes doesn’t plan on moving after the shooting, but he said the risk of staying weighs heavy on him.
“I think about it all the time,” Hughes said.
It’s not the first time someone has been killed near his home. On Dec. 4, 2021, Nathaniel Allen, 33, was fatally shot near the 67-year-old’s house, according to police. Almonta White, charged with Allen’s slaying, is awaiting trial on the case.
No charges have been announced in Dalilah’s killing. Area 2 detectives are investigating.