CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) An 18-month-old girl was asleep in her car seat inside a Southwest Side apartment when prosecutors say a man walked into the room carrying a cordless drill in one hand and a Glock equipped with a machine gun conversion device in the other. Prosecutors say 38-year-old Davaris Washington meant to pull the trigger on the drill. Instead, he pulled the trigger on the gun. Three rounds were fired. One struck the toddler in the back of the head. The girl remained intubated and in critical condition at Comer Children’s Hospital Monday, prosecutors said during Washington’s detention hearing. Washington faces four felony charges and was ordered detained pending trial.
The shooting happened shortly after midnight Saturday near 64th Street and Mozart Avenue in Chicago Lawn. Prosecutors said Washington was dating the child’s mother and paid for a rideshare to bring her and her daughter to his apartment. The toddler fell asleep during the roughly 30-minute ride and remained in her car seat inside. Washington walked toward a couch carrying the drill and Glock and tried to briefly run the drill to see whether the noise would disturb the sleeping child, prosecutors said. But prosecutors say he squeezed the wrong trigger.
The Glock was fitted with a switch, allowing it to fire multiple rounds with a single trigger pull. Investigators found three bullet holes in the couch and two in the toddler’s car seat. Washington called 911, but prosecutors say he told the dispatcher an unknown person had fired through a window. Before police arrived, prosecutors allege Washington gave the Glock to an upstairs neighbor and asked her to hide it. But responding officers almost immediately spotted a .45-caliber shell casing near the couch, prosecutors said. Police ultimately recovered three spent casings in the living room and the gun from the upstairs apartment.
The allegations against Washington have not been proven in court.
