Desire Hughes Toledo Ohio 7 month old baby girl shot dead in dad’s car at red lights in suspected gang related violence. No arrests.
Another casualty to be forgotten by the end of the news day cycle amid ongoing unrelenting American gang violence.
A baby girl was killed in Ohio in a drive by shooting after a gunman shot at her dad’s car while waited at red lights.
Desire Hughes, who was just 7 months old, was in the back seat of her dad’s car late Wednesday when someone leaned out of a passing car and fired off gunfire, Toledo police said.
The girl’s father, Jeremiah Hughes — who was also grazed by one of the bullets — sped off to a hospital, where his daughter was pronounced dead, he told The Toledo Blade after being treated for his own wounds.
An autopsy stated the baby girl being hit in the chest.
‘I don’t even know what to do…’
‘My baby … they really took that girl from me,’ 20-year-old Hughes told the Toledo Blade.
‘I was a happy dad, you feelin’ me? She was gonna change my life, man,’ the father said. ‘That was the one that was gonna change my life. That’s why I’m so sick, I don’t even know what to do.’
Hughes said he had no idea why his car was shot up, and that he was helping police ID the shooter.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz responded that the incident was the latest ‘heartbreaking’ result of drug- or gang-related violence.
‘No one pulls up to a car and shoots into another car randomly,’ the official told The Blade.
‘It’s unfair to the 275,000 who live in the city to feel less safe than they should have because of the 50 people in a gang who are playing out a revenge drama that affects all of us.’
He said that in each similar case, ‘the victim has known his or her attacker.’
“Babies are dying at the hands of guns. And it’s not guns. It’s the people behind the guns that’s killing our babies.”
A drive-by shooting killed 7-month-old Desire Hughes in west Toledo. There are no suspects. https://t.co/QJbd1V685d
— WTOL 11 (@WTOL11Toledo) April 29, 2022
Unrelenting violent crime in Toledo
‘It doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking but it does affect how we address the problem,’ he said.
According to Neighborhood Scout, Toledo, Ohio ranks at 8 for safety, with 100 being the safest city to live in.
The site states in 2021 alone 2,731 violent crimes occurring with a total of 10,626 crimes reported with a violent crime rate of 10.08 per 1000 residents and overall crime rate of 39.23 per 1000 residents.
To date no suspect has been identified or any arrests been made.
TPD said officers are asking residents in the area to review any home security footage they may have and report anything suspicious they may have seen before, during, or after the shooting.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers: 419-255-1111.
