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'They Shot My Baby' Bloody Woman Tells Neighbor After 2-Year-Old Hit

By Josh McGhee | March 10, 2015 4:59pm
 Odell Branch, 77, of Roseland was fatally shot Monday night. He was one of four people shot during the incident including his granddaughter and her 5-year-old and 2-year-old children.
Roseland Homicide
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ROSELAND — When Victor emerged from his home Monday after hearing repeated rounds of gunfire, a woman emerged from a nearby van drenched in blood.

"She was screaming 'My baby ... they got him. ... They shot my baby," recalled the man, who declined to give his full name.

"She put her baby in my arms and asked me to help her," recalled the man, a longtime resident of the 200 block of South 105th Street. But "I couldn't help her."

" ... I placed the baby on the ground and ripped open his shirt and saw the bullet holes and the blood," said Victor as a single tear rolled down his face Tuesday. "I have a 5-year-old. That could've been my child. I can't imagine my baby with all them bullet holes."

 Four people, including two young children, were shot Monday on 105th Street.
Four shot on 105th Street
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The girl was listed in serious condition at Roseland Hospital Tuesday.

The shooting happened around 6:30 p.m. Monday, police said, and claimed victims inside and outside a home on the block. Odell Branch, 77, was killed and his 5-year-old great grandson was hurt while they watched TV inside when bullets went through a window. The 34-year-old woman along with her two-year-old were wounded while they were getting into a car.

The woman was hit in her chest and her left hand, police said.

Tuesday morning, the block was quiet as Victor stared deeply into the tinted windows of the blue Pontiac Montana with Wisconsin plates which was still sitting on his block after the shooting. It was riddled with bullet holes from the night before. Since Victor was handed the 2-year-old, he hasn't been able to sleep, let alone stop shaking, he said.

"I didn't want to be a part of this," he said. "I've been shaking all night. I can't stop shaking. I'm f----- up. This is a f----- way to live. Shorty was only 2 years old."

Victor searched through the shattered glass of the rear window and saw another shattered window on the passenger's side. A pair of crutches lay in the back seat among shards of glass that also covered the exterior of the car.

"They must've been just running up shooting. This was a mother and her children. Look at all these bullets ... " Victor said circling the van as he counted the bullet holes.

One bullet had lodged into the rear passenger tire, leaving it flat. He rubbed his finger where another had landed directly in the center of the sliding door behind the driver's seat, pausing like a detective discovering a clue.

"This is the one that must've hit him. She must've been putting him in here when they came," said Victor.

Victor said he had been inside his home watching television with his family when he heard the sound of gunfire. He told his three children to keep their heads down before they heard a second round of shots. He was so nervous he couldn't keep track of how many shots were fired, he said.

Other neighbors said they heard at least 20 shots.

After the second round of shooting, Victor concluded it was safe enough to survey the damage of the attack, he said.

That's when he went outside and the woman emerged from the van — clutching her wounded son.

Meanwhile, Branch and and his great-grandson had been flipping through the channels in search of Branch's favorite westerns, family members said.

Branch's daughter, Janice Meeks, was cleaning dishes from dinner when she heard the gunfire, which police said went through a window. She gathered the kids around her and hit the floor. Moments later, the 5-year-old squirmed into the kitchen, she said.

"My little nephew was crawling on the floor. He looked up and said he got shot. Then he said, 'Granddaddy is on the floor,'" Meeks said.

When Meeks saw her father, she immediately called for an ambulance. When crews arrived she watched helplessly as they tried over and over again to resuscitate him. When he was finally in the ambulance, she realized the others had been shot, she said.

The 5-year-old boy was grazed in his arm, but Branch was been shot in his head and later died, police said. He was pronounced dead at Christ Hospital at 7:41 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

Police said the shooting appeared to be gang-related and "multiple persons of interest" were in custody and being questioned.

Meeks said her father was a hard-working man, who retired years earlier to care for his wife and become closer to God. He was ordained a deacon in 1990 and attends Gospel Temple Baptist Church, at 1058 W. 103rd Place, Meeks said.

Jamaine Wells, 28, of Roseland, said the entire block considered each other family with some neighbors living together for decades and past residents sometimes returning home. In fact, Wells' grandfather had been friends with Branch since they moved from Mississippi to Chicago over 30 years ago.

"He was the type of guy that if he saw you on the street he'd wave hello and talk to the little kids. He exhibited everything a good man should be. He was a role model for the block," Wells said, adding he hasn't found the courage to tell his grandfather about the death.

"You can feel a sadness like this block just lost something very important. His presence was really felt deeply," said his wife, Shanell Wells.

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