Dakotah Earley moved to Chicago six months ago to study culinary arts and figure out what to do with his life.
His family says the 23-year-old is “a gentle giant” who “would’ve given the shirt off his back to anyone in need.”
Earley is on life-support after a man robbed him of his phone and shot him three times last week in Lincoln Park.
“Dakotah is fighting as hard as he can right now,” his brother DeShawn Earley wrote Sunday on a GoFundMe online fundraising page.
Chicago police said Dakotah was robbed and shot early Friday by two people wanted in at least seven similar robberies on the North Side this month.
Dakotah Earley was walking on a sidewalk at Webster and Wayne avenues around 3 a.m. when he was confronted by a gunman who stepped out from behind a building, pointed a gun and demanded his cellphone.
Surveillance video captured him struggling with the gunman who took his phone and demanded the passcode. The gunman then opened fire at close range and shot him three times in the head and back, police said. He is hospitalized at Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
The gunman’s accomplice could be seen getting out of a white car during the struggle, according to the video. No one had been arrested as of Monday, police said.
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Dakotah Earley had been taking a break from work and school “to focus on some other things in his life, with a plan to return when he felt ready,” posted DeShawn Early, who declined an interview Monday. “He did not deserve this.”
Dakotah Earley remained in critical condition Sunday, his brother wrote. He had been scheduled for surgery on his stomach Saturday, but it was postponed because “his body was too weak,” he wrote.
Dakotah Earley’s kidneys also began failing on Saturday and he began dialysis. His brother said he “has done well on it so far.”
Doctors are also treating a leg injury and trying to keep the surrounding tissues intact, he wrote.
“His condition remains critical and he continues to receive a lot of support from several different machines,” DeShawn Early wrote. “We strongly believe the prayers we are receiving are being heard and Dakotah is fighting as hard as he can right now.”
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2022. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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