Infant girl fatally stabbed in Gage Park; suspect held

A baby girl was fatally stabbed Friday morning on the Southwest Side, and a suspect who leaped from a window to escape is in custody.

Nyhnia Stovall was inside a home in the 3000 block of West 59th Street when a “known offender” used a knife to stab her in the chest about 7:20 a.m., police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Nyhnia, not yet a year old, was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the medical examiner’s office said.

After the stabbing, the alleged attacker jumped from an upper-level window and was injured, police said. That person was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where their condition had stabilized.

No other injuries were reported, and a knife was recovered at the scene.

The allged attacker was placed into custody, and charges were pending, police said.

Evelyn Iniguez, who works as a school clerk at Barbara Vick Village Early Childhood and Family Center, 3001 W. 59th St., said she arrived shortly after the stabbing was reported, but she didn’t know what had happened. Police cars and ambulances with flashing lights blocked the street and staff members had to park elsewhere, Iniguez said.

They didn’t know what happened and were scared to find out, she said. She didn’t see anyone loaded into ambulances or anyone that appeared injured.

“We didn’t dare go and ask,” Iniguez said. “Everybody came in [to work] in shock.”

Students at the preschool don’t arrive until 8:45 a.m., Iniguez said, and the staff didn’t change their typical routine.

Anna Padilla works at a barber shop a few doors down from the scene. When she got to work this morning around 9 a.m., police cars and ambulances still covered the block until around noon, she said

“We didn’t know what happened,” she said.

Padilla said some of the residents of the building were customers of the barber shop, but she doesn’t know them personally.