The man who shot and gravely wounded a 1-year-old girl inside a Chicago Lawn home over the weekend intended to pull the trigger on an electric drill but accidentally pulled the trigger on a machine gun in his other hand, unleashing a burst of bullets that struck the child in the back of the head, prosecutors said Monday.
Davaris Washington, 38, is now detained pending trial in connection with Saturday morning’s shooting that left his girlfriend’s young daughter intubated and in critical condition.
On Friday night, Washington invited the woman to his apartment and paid for her Lyft ride to his home in the 6400 block of South Mozart Street, according to a detention filing by Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth Dibler. The woman arrived shortly before midnight, let herself in, and sat on a living room sofa, placing the child on the floor nearby in her car seat.
Washington was in the kitchen and did not say anything while the woman scrolled on her phone, according to Dibler. A few minutes after midnight, Washington picked up a firearm with his left hand and a cordless drill with his right hand and walked into the living room.
As he approached the couch, which he was apparently in the process of repairing, Washington intended to rev the power drill in his right hand to see if it would be too loud to use with the sleeping child. Instead, he allegedly pulled the trigger of the gun, which was equipped with an auto-fire switch that allowed it to unleash multiple rounds with one trigger pull.
That single trigger pull fired three rounds, one of which struck the girl in the back of the head as she slept in her car seat. The bullet is believed to have exited near her ear because doctors did not find a projectile, Dibler said.
The woman picked up her daughter, realized she was bleeding from the head, and thought a bullet had come through the front window. Washington called 911 and handed her the phone, but she was panicked and gave it back. Washington then reported that the baby had been shot by an unknown assailant through the front window, Dibler said.
Chicago police arrived to find no bullet holes in the window or front shades and three .45-caliber shell casings inside the apartment. Investigators also found three bullet holes in the arm of a second couch near where the woman had been seated. The child’s car seat had two bullet holes, one in the top of the back and another on the side.
Dibler said Washington gave the gun to an upstairs neighbor before police arrived and told her to hide it, but he did not tell her what had happened. He later informed police where they could recover the weapon. Officers found it in a laundry bin in the neighbor’s closet along with two magazines, including an extended magazine that was inserted in the firearm, Dibler said.
Washington’s criminal background includes felony narcotics convictions in 2017 and 2011 and an armed violence conviction in 2010, according to Dibler. She said he was charged with being an armed habitual criminal in 2022, but that case was dismissed after a motion to quash was granted.
Court records show Washington also has a pending misdemeanor case charging him with fleeing police and resisting arrest.
On Monday, Judge D’Anthony Thedford ordered Washington detained on charges of unlawful use of a machine gun, possession of a firearm by a repeat felon, reckless discharge of a firearm and reckless conduct causing great bodily harm.
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