Though surgeries have gone smoothly for seven-year-old Zayden Garrett, he will have to spend Halloween in a hospital bed after he was critically wounded in a shooting during family pizza night in West Pullman.
Zayden will remain at Comer Children’s Hospital for at least the next four weeks, but Rosie Liggins, his grandmother, said he is “doing so much better” after a surgery to remove the bullet from his chest, which was said to have “gone great.”
In the Monday night attack, Zayden was shot in his back and grazed in his head, and doctors also removed half of his right lung and the top part of his left lung.
The shooting happened just after 9 p.m. Monday night as Zayden was at home with family members in the 11600 block of South Yale Avenue, relatives and Chicago police said.
His 27-year-old uncle was also badly wounded in the attack but was released from the hospital Tuesday. Police reported no arrests as of Thursday in the violent attack.
Though Zayden was hoping to dress up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for the holiday, his spirits remain high.
“He’s never a kid to be sad; he loves playing,” Liggins said earlier this week. “I have no problems with him at home.”
As Zayden rested, his family, friends and community members gathered near the hospital Wednesday evening to call for justice and pray.
“Please turn yourself in,” Liggins urged the gunmen . “He didn’t deserve this. He’s 7 years old and he’s fighting for his life.”
Community activist Andrew Holmes and Case Files Chicago are offering a $2,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the shooting.
“He’s supposed to be at school, coming home, getting on our nerves,” Liggins said. “But instead he’s [at Comer’s] and we’re down here trying to find justice for him.
“We’re gonna be out here every single day until whoever did this to my grandson is where he should be,” Liggins said.
“We’re not giving up.”