As heartbreaking as the call is for the boy and his family, it is also a testament to the city's continuing struggle with gang violence. Photo / iStock
Between recurrent gang violence and last summer's shooting rampage by a lone gunman, Chattanooga police have fielded some brutal 911 calls in the past year.
Perhaps none as painful, however, as the call they received late Sunday night from a five-year-old boy.
"My daddy and my mama got shot," the boy said calmly.
The boy's blunt statement seemed to catch the dispatcher off guard.
"You said your brother and your mama is doing what?" she asked.
"My mama and my daddy got shot," the boy repeated.
"They're fighting?" the dispatcher asked.
"No," he answered. "This dude shot 'em."
The call is subdued and yet also heartbreaking. The boy is too young to know his own address, and yet here he is having to give a statement about how his own parents were just slain in front of his eyes.
After the boy was able to help police locate his house, officers arrived to find George Dillard, 24, and Lakita Hicks, 25, dead inside the house. The boy, whose name has not been released, was unharmed, according to News Channel 9.
As heartbreaking as the call is for the boy and his family, it is also a testament to the city's continuing struggle with gang violence.
Although Chattanooga police have not said if the shooting was gang-related, they did confirm Dillard was a gang member. According to the Times Free Press, he belonged to the 52 Bloodstone Villains.
The double homicide also follows a spate of recent shootings with suspected gang ties. On Jan. 25, less than a week earlier, 20-year-old Thomas Simmons was fatally shot while walking on the street. Police have called the killing gang-related and said they are investigating to see whether it is connected to Sunday's shooting, the Times Free Press reported. Two other people were also shot this weekend during a drive-by, although both victims lived.
The city has waged a high-profile campaign to combat gang violence in recent years. On Friday, Chattanooga Police posted to Facebook a warning to gang members that they were looking for Simmons' killer.
"A man was brutally murdered in broad daylight in our community," Police Chief Fred Fletcher said in the video. "We have credible information that gang members perpetrated this heinous act of violence. . . . Let me be very, very clear about this. If you are part of a gang or a group that intends to harm our community, we are looking at you and we are looking for you. You can make the choice to stop this violence, or we can make you stop the violence."
Three days later, however, Fletcher found himself commenting on yet another killing.
"We have dual concerns here," he told News Channel 9, "finding the people who committed this atrocious act of violence and making sure we help the people who have survived it and are affected by it."
At this point, the boy and his heartbreaking eye-witness account are all the cops have to go on. They have not arrested any suspects.
"Where were you" when the shooting happened, the dispatcher asked the boy during the 911 call.
"Um, I was still at home and I started crying," he said.
"So there's nobody there with you?" the dispatcher asked.
"No," the boy answered before pleading, "can you tell the police officers to come?"
When the dispatcher asked what happened, the boy said that his parents were "in the backyard but a dude shot them.
"But now he gone," the boy said, adding that he was now watching television.
Then the dispatcher asks about his parents.
"Are they talking to you?"
"No," he answers. "They dead."
"You said both of them?" the dispatcher asks.
"Uh huh," he says. "And I'm by myself."
Lakita Hicks's uncle, however, said that the boy is no longer alone.
"He is with family now," Eric Terry Sr. told News Channel 9. "He's doing pretty good, strong lil' guy."
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