‘A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY’ JUDGE SAYS AFTER PARENTS SHOOT TODDLER DURING STRUGGLE OVER GUN
Calling the case “a horrible tragedy,” a judge set bail at $10,000 Thursday for the parents of a 23-month-old boy who was shot in the head Monday while they allegedly struggled over a gun during an argument in an Uptown apartment.
In setting the bail for each parent, Judge Arthur Wesley Willis noted that the boy’s father had rushed him to a hospital and said he knew that both parents were already “suffering because their child was shot.”
But Willis admonished 26-year-old Travis McCoy, the boy’s father, for having a gun that he wasn’t legally allowed to possess after a felony conviction when he was 17. He said he found McCoy’s actions after the shooting “extremely confusing” after he claimed to police that the boy was shot on the street. But, Willis added, “I’m not here to judge how someone reacts.”
McCoy faces a felony count of filing a false police report for allegedly initially lying to authorities about how the child came to be shot. His wife, Adriana Smith, 28, was charged with felony obstruction of justice and destroying evidence. Both also face a misdemeanor charge of causing a child’s endangerment.
Cook County prosecutors said the couple was arguing about 7:30 p.m. Monday at their apartment in the 800 block of West Eastwood because Smith had been told she needed to leave her Chicago Housing Authority unit in three weeks.
McCoy threw Smith’s cellphone through one of the apartment’s windows, and Smith told him she would call the police. She then threw his jean jacket at him, causing a gun to fall out, prosecutors said.
Smith grabbed the handle of the gun, and McCoy grabbed the barrel, causing it to go off, and a bullet struck the ceiling of the apartment, prosecutors said. The bullet fractured, with one piece falling to the floor and the other entering the toddler’s temple, prosecutors said.
McCoy grabbed the child and ran to the hospital, located blocks away, where he encountered police in the parking lot and said his boy had been shot while he was trying to put him into a car and said he heard five gunshots, prosecutors said.
Smith grabbed the couple’s 7-year-old daughter, who was also home at the time, and cleaned up blood in the hallway before taking her to try and find a phone and call her mother, prosecutors said.
Smith eventually tossed the gun in Clarendon Park, although it has not been recovered, prosecutors said.
Emily Bock, an assistant public defender for the couple, said they were faced with “unimaginable panic” after their son was shot and that both parents eventually assisted authorities.
Smith does not have a criminal record, and Bock said she is credits shy from graduating from Truman College and had already been accepted into nursing programs at two universities in the city. McCoy has been working as a dishwasher for the past year, she said.
In court Thursday, Smith sat in a chair for the hearing, sometimes sobbing with her head bowed, and McCoy stood before the judge looking down and crying at times.
Prosecutors said the child was expected to be released from the hospital Thursday but will be taken into the custody of the state’s Department of Children and Family Services along with his sister until further court order.