Alderman Monique Scott (24th) said she is horrified over the attack on 11-year-old Trinity Washington, a Black girl, by two grown Hispanic women. The pair broke the child’s nose and slugged her in the eye after the girl asked them not to use the “n….” word. A male relative of the attacker allegedly threatened the girl’s mother with a gun during a Mexican Independence Day celebration.
In an interview with the Chicago Crusader on Tuesday, September 26, Scott said besides being shocked over the attack on the child, she is perplexed because both mothers live in the same building and had been friends. “That’s why I don’t understand why this happened.”
The attack occurred on Sunday, September 17, outside the young girl’s home in the 1900 block of South Spaulding in the Lawndale community. The sixth-grade honor student and captain of her cheerleader team was with her puppy, who was allegedly stepped on by one of the Hispanic women. The attack happened after the child did not move her puppy out of their way fast enough.
The child told reporters she did nothing wrong and was only trying to get her puppy out of their way when the women began to call her a “n…”
“I looked up, and a bottle was being thrown to my face; I dropped down because I felt something hard. She punched me in my nose. When she punched me, I almost blacked out, and I fell again,” the youngster told ABC-7 News. “My eye is in so much pain, my eye and my nose,” said the girl whose right eye is closed due to the beating, and now requires two surgeries.
Confirming the child’s attackers were Hispanic, Alderman Scott said, “It’s horrifying.”
When asked to confirm the ethnicity of the attackers, Scott said, “They were Hispanic.” She said the victim is a Black girl, but it doesn’t make any difference about their ethnicity, because whether they were two Black or two white women, “no adults should beat on a child.”
Asked if she thought the incident amounted to a hate crime, Scott said, “I’m really not sure. It’s a crime that an 11-year-old girl was beaten by grown women and threatened by a grown man.” The man allegedly put a gun in the face of the youthful victim’s mother and threatened her life.
“It’s something that I don’t want to see happen in my community, but it’s not something I want to start a race war in my community as well,” Scott said. “They were both neighbors.”
After speaking to the mother of the child, Scott said, “They actually had a relationship,” referring to one of the Hispanic mothers allegedly involved in the girl’s attack.
“It was kind of odd to the mom that they would do something like this to her child. I don’t know what surfaced or what was said because the mom didn’t share that,” Scott stated. “But the mom said she was appalled that the woman and her friend did jump on her daughter.”
It was odd, Scott said because the victim’s mother “actually helped the Hispanic mother get her daughter into the school which is right on Ogden. She has been an advocate and a champion for that mom with her child, in getting her to and from school because the [Hispanic] mom couldn’t afford the afterschool program.”
The 11-year-old victim’s mother, Scott said, “was a little surprised and taken aback that they would do this to her child.”
The young victim told reporters when she heard one of the Hispanic mothers use the “n—–” word, she told them not to say that because it was wrong, it was bad. The child said her neighbor’s sister had allegedly been drinking.
That is when the women attacked the girl with a bottle, smashing it against her eye and her neighbor broke her nose, punching her after she told them it was wrong to use the “n…” word. One of the women allegedly had stepped on the victim’s puppy, which was not hurt.
The victim’s mother, Wanda Porter, says she wants justice for her child.
And so does Frank Chapman, founder of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, who told the Chicago Crusader, “I consider it a hate crime, racist. You call somebody a ‘n….’, they should be prosecuted.”
Referring to the young child’s account of what happened to her, Scott said, “That is what happened. I didn’t speak to the child. I spoke to the mom.”
Asked what she wants the police to do, Scott said, “The police have to wait until the young girl is off of her medicine. They can’t talk to her until she’s done with her medicine.” Scott said she has spoken to the Superintendent of Police, the commander, and the captain in the 10th Police District.
“I also have different departments looking for permanent housing for the mother of the victim because their landlord wants both of them to vacate his property,” Scott told the Chicago Crusader.” She said the victim’s mother doesn’t object to moving to another part of the city or to a suburban area. She is willing to move away from the West Side of Chicago.
“I don’t condone violence under no circumstance, but no mother should endure the pain of watching her child beaten and hit in the face with glass,” Scott said.
While the alderman didn’t classify the attack as a hate crime, members of the 10th Police District Council held a press conference on Tuesday, September 26, outside the 10th District Police Station, 3315 W. Ogden, complaining that only one of the two women had been arrested and that was after multiple calls were made to 911. They were outraged that a relative of the two women went to the child’s home and allegedly threatened the mother with a gun.
The coalition called the police response to the child’s beating “inadequate,” given the severity of the crime. They are calling on the police to update the charges to a hate crime against a minor, find and arrest the second woman, and improve the responses to protect the 11-year-old and her family.
The Chicago Police Department issued a statement about the assault, saying it will not tolerate “violence in our communities, especially violence against children. We stand with the child who was injured and will continue to support her and her family as she recovers from the heartbreaking attack.”
“This remains an active and ongoing investigation as the detectives work to hold the offenders accountable.”
The child victim was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital.
Arrested was 32-year-old Deandre Carroll, who was charged with one misdemeanor count, aggravated assault/use of deadly weapon.
Police said Area Four detectives “are working diligently on this investigation.”
