By SAM CHARLES, ANDY GRIMM and JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times
Police stand near a car in an alley between Kostner and Kenneth avenues while investigating a fatal shooting in North Lawndale. | Andy Grimm/Sun-Times
Two-year-old Lavontay White and 26-year-old Lazarec Collins were killed, and the boy’s aunt wounded in an attack Tuesday afternoon in North Lawndale that was partially captured on Facebook Live.
The woman was streaming video at the time of the shooting, which occurred in an alley in the 2300 block of South Kenneth Avenue.
The three were in a car in the alley about 1:30 p.m. when another vehicle drove past and someone got out, pulled a weapon and fired shots, according to Chicago Police.
The toddler and Collins were both shot in the head. They were taken to Stroger Hospital, where the toddler died about 2:43 p.m., authorities said. Collins lived in the Little Village neighborhood.
Lazarec Collins (left) and Lavontay White | Facebook
The 25-year-old woman was shot in the abdomen, and was listed in fair condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said. Her unborn child survived.
After the shooting, detectives walked the alley, pointing occasionally at their maroon four-door sedan, which had several bullet holes visible in the rear, passenger-side window. The car seemed to have veered into a fence, coming to rest partially in a vacant lot.
At a press conference across from the crime scene, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said the 26-year-old Collins, a “documented gang member,” was the target of the gunman, who fired “several shots” into the vehicle.
He added, “We believe that this was a targeted shooting, so these people were looking for him.”
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that the 26-year-old had been released from prison about six months ago, and has been arrested several times for charges that included burglary and armed robbery.
The Facebook Live video, which was viewed more than 100,000 times on Facebook in the first three hours after the shooting, shows a young woman in a black hoodie filming as she sits in the passenger seat of a car, smiling and singing along to a rap song with the driver, a young man in a white hoodie and baseball cap.
As she pans the camera phone back and forth inside the car, the head of the child in the back seat is briefly visible.
The woman’s cheery expression changes as she peers outside the car and to her left, shortly before the crack of a gunshot and an explosion of glass. The woman tumbles out the door of the car and sprints through a lot, an alley, and a doorway, screaming for help.
The woman bolts into a house, and the screen goes dark, but the audio continues. The woman says she’s been shot in the stomach, but doesn’t want to go to the hospital.
“I can’t go to the hospital,” she says. “They’ll send me to jail.”
On Monday, the woman had posted a picture of the red car, captioned “fresh car wash get new tires still trying to sell it doe.” Beneath the photo, more than one person chastised her for giving valuable intelligence to her boyfriend’s enemies, or “opps.”
“U posted this pick yo boyfriend opps saw it and they got on y’all ass,” wrote one poster. “sad but if you f – – – wit the streets or street people you gotta be smarter young one.”
Sounding a familiar call to action, Johnson said tougher gun laws are needed to abate the violence in the city.
“We just cannot afford to have our children shot down for something they had no involvement in,” Johnson said.
He said police have video and a license plate from the shooting, but no arrests had been made as of Thursday morning.
“I hope our legislative partners are looking right now,” Johnson said. “We have yet another innocent child in Chicago that can lose their life over senseless gun violence.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with funeral expenses for Lavontay.
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire and Homicide Watch Chicago contributing