CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A member of the U.S. Navy was critically wounded while in a parked car with his 3-year-old daughter during an apparent carjacking attempt Thursday night in Chatham, according to police and family members.
CBS News reports Koreyuntaye Robinson and his daughter Kori were in the first block of East 79th Street when a car pulled up around 7:20 p.m. and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police said. Robinson drove away, but crashed into a parked car in the 300 block of East 79th Street.
News 3 has learned that Robinson resides in Norfolk.
Chicago police work the scene where two people were shot including a 3-year-old during an attempted carjacking in the 7900 block of S. King Dr. in the Chatham neighborhood, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. Robinson was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.
Police initially said his daughter was grazed in the head and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition. But they later said she was not injured, even though relatives said her head was bandaged and they could see blood.
“To see my granddaughter’s head wrapped and blood running out of it is what took my soul and I fell to my knees, because you all are out here and you’re harming women and children over nothing,” said Shenell Griffin, Robinson’s mother.
“To shoot in that car, you know kids [are] in there, you have to be a demonic soul," she added. “Something’s really wrong.”
Griffin said she was coming home from nursing school when she learned her son and granddaughter had been wounded and rushed to the scene. She later joined about a dozen family and friends outside the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Robinson is a member of the U.S. Navy who lives in Virginia, Griffin said. He and his daughter were in town visiting family when they were apparently targeted by carjackers who opened fire.
Griffin noted that two of her son’s friends have been killed in recent days, including 29-year-old Derricka Patrick, a pregnant woman shot to death Wednesday. Now, after spending 49 years in Chicago, she said the steady drumbeat of violence is finally pushing her out.
“This is the worst I have ever seen it,” she said. “I cannot breathe here another day. I have to go, and my kids have to go.”
Griffin’s uncle, David Griffin, said Robinson graduated with honors from Dunbar Vocational Career Academy, where he was a standout basketball player. In addition to serving in the military, David Griffin said Robinson is a businessman who ran a moving and storage business.
Navy Region Mid-Atlantic released the following statement on the incident:
“Commander Naval Surface Force Atlantic (CNSL) can confirm that one of its Sailors, Culinary Specialist Seaman Apprentice (CSSA) Koreyuntaye D. Robinson, was shot while on leave in Chicago, Jan. 13, 2022. CNSL is cooperating fully with local authorities and extending support as needed to this Sailor and his family.”
