Rush Calls for 'Coward' Who Killed 11-Year-Old Takiya Holmes To Turn Self In

CHICAGO, IL -- U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (IL-1) is calling on the “coward” who killed an 11-year-old Chicago girl to turn himself into police, according to a written statement issued by the congressman’s office.

Takiya Holmes was struck in the head by a bullet while sitting in her family’s minivan in Chicago’s Parkway Gardens community. She was one of two young girls who were struck by random gunfire this past weekend minutes apart. Holmes died Tuesday from her injuries in her mother’s arms.

“I offer condolences, prayer and support to the family of this beautiful child whose life was stolen from her by the act of a coward,” Rush said. “I am as outraged as I am saddened that we are living at a time when lives are devalued and where citizens resort to guns rather than meaningful conflict resolution.”

The fifth-grader was one of two young girls shot in separate attacks shot on the South Side over the weekend in separate gun attacks. The other girl, Kanari Gentry Bowers, remains in critical condition. She, too, was shot in the head.

“What has happened to Taykia, and Kanari, should never happen in any civilized society. And yet, we have been here before, time and time again. People who are living and working in the most distressed parts of Chicago are under siege,” Rush said.

Rush’s remarks come in response to President Donald Trump’s chastising of Chicago’s gun violence, implying that the city’s political leaders and police are in over their heads with Chicago’s growing gun violence. Trump has threatened in tweets to “bring in the feds” if Chicago can’t get the homicide rate under control.

Whether that means bringing in federal troops or directing federal resources to the city’s most impoverished and violence-plagued neighborhoods remains to be seen

“[People] are in need of immediate local, state and federal resources, including access to social services, mental health, housing, violence prevention and health care,” the congressman’s statement continued. “But citizens also need jobs, access to capital, education and trades programs as well as equal opportunity and equal protection under the law. Without these additional resources no policing strategy will prevent these types of random or premeditated acts from happening.”

The congressman called for the individuals who shot the young girls to turn themselves in.

“I am calling on the coward who killed Takiya to find the moral courage and surrender to authorities,” Rush said. “ I am calling on the individual who has wounded Kanari to understand the trauma and devastation you have caused and turn yourself in.

“Our city cannot not withstand any more of these deaths.”

Rush’s own 29-year-old son Huey Rich was shot to death in 1999 by two men posing as police officers, news reports said.