Kanari Gentry Bowers’ family was determined not to let her go.

For days they read to the 12-year-old as she lay unconscious in the hospital bed, her skin pierced by 11 IVs. Notes from friends, a homemade Valentine’s Day card from a boy Kanari liked, a school banner her principal brought over, dotted with the names of her sixth-grade classmates.

Their determination only grew stronger after another young girl shot over the weekend, 11-year-old Takiya Holmes, died on Tuesday.

But in the words of a relative, "God got the last word" on Wednesday afternoon and Kanari died while still hooked up to life support.

Kanari was surrounded by her mother, her father and her uncle, according to Dawn Valenti, a family friend and crisis counselor who was just outside the door.

“Her brain function was gone, there was nothing else they could do for her, nothing at all,” Valenti said. “It was out of their hands. She was gone."

Her family released a statement through the hospital saying "we are appreciative of all of the thoughts and prayers we have received in the past several days.
 
"Please keep your children close and do whatever it takes to protect them from the senseless gun violence in our city.”

Recent shootings illustrate how quickly innocent children can become victims in some of the city's most gang-infested neighborhoods. 

Kanari was the first of three children fatally shot in Chicago over the past week. Her death came as charges were filed in Takiya's death and as police stepped up their investigation into the slaying of 2-year-old Lavontay White Jr. earlier this week.

Kanari had been on life support since a bullet tore into her body on the South Side Saturday night, striking her uppermost vertebrae, close to the base of her head, and causing brain damage, according to Valenti.

Thirty minutes later, and 4 miles away, Takiya was also struck by a stray bullet in the head. She also remained on life support for days until doctors determined there was no brain activity. She died early Valentine’s Day.

Chicagoans, these senseless shootings are on us Dahleen Glanton

There are many reasons Chicagoans must not allow the city's violence to become a political pawn in the hands of President Donald Trump.

But two of them are particularly relevant right now — shooting victims Takiya Holmes, 11, and Kanari Gentry Bowers, 12.

Pause for a moment and say their names. Then...

There are many reasons Chicagoans must not allow the city's violence to become a political pawn in the hands of President Donald Trump.

But two of them are particularly relevant right now — shooting victims Takiya Holmes, 11, and Kanari Gentry Bowers, 12.

Pause for a moment and say their names. Then...

(Dahleen Glanton)

When Valenti heard the news, she knew she had to be the one to break it to Kanari’s legal guardian, her paternal grandmother, Patricia Donald-Bowers.

“The shock value of it, I didn’t want her to see it on TV, I wanted to tell her personally so she could kind of absorb it,” Valenti said.

She said the two families have reached out to one another, with some of Kanari’s relatives attending a vigil for Takiya on Tuesday and offering condolences to Takiya’s mother, Valenti said.

“It’s amazing how two families can be bonded by an act of violence … coming together because their children suffered,” Valenti said.

Learning of Takiya’s fate had only steeled the family's resolve not to take Kanari off life support.  

The family is extremely close, she said, and Kanari’s cousins were a strong support system. Kanari’s uncle Djuan Donald and her cousins Rochetta Tyler and Patricia Donald, 20, were at the hospital trying to keep spirits light by sharing stories.

"That’s about all you could do right now, is talk about those happy times and focus on those things that make your spirits feel good,” Valenti said.

After a Tuesday visit from Henderson Elementary School Principal Marvis Jackson-Ivy, Patricia Donald took a pile of letters and cards Jackson-Ivy dropped off and read them during a stream on Facebook Live.

“Y’all done put so much thought and love into the cards, when Kanari see it she gonna love it,” Donald said into the camera.

She got in some good teasing, too. She complimented one student’s handwriting, seemed impressed one student wrote to Kanari in Spanish, and saved her best taunts for a student who had a bit of trouble with spelling (it’s “choir,” not “quire.”)

The family has been torn before by gun violence. Rochetta Tyler lost a daughter, Michelle Pearson, after she was shot in the summer of 2014 at the age of 20.  Like Kanari, Pearson was wounded in the head and was on placed of life support.

‘“My baby’s fighting for her life,’’ Rochetta Tyler said at the time. “They say she’s not going to get any better. The doctors told me that she’s a fighter … that she’s really fighting.’’

Tyler also made a plea that day in June nearly three years ago.

“It’ll be a miracle and a blessing if they turned themselves in,’’ Tyler said. “If the streets don’t turn them in, then they’re just as guilty as them.’’

Pearson died seven months later.  She was the mother of a 4-year-old son.

On Sunday, Tyler stood in front of a different hospital and made the same plea: "I don’t know what’s going to stop this, what we can do to stop this. I don’t know. It’s just, we steadily losing our kids. Eleven and 12? Whoever did this, they should turn themselves in.”

Tyler’s crisis counselor back in 2014 was Dawn Valenti. It was the beginning of a lasting relationship. Tyler called Valenti again Saturday night to tell her, this time, her 12-year-old cousin had been shot.

“This city right now is in such crisis," Valenti said. "We’ve got too much happening and too many innocent children and these feral children out on the streets with too many guns. For me they’re basically wild, there’s no other way to say it. They’re feral.

"Because if they do understand what’s behind pulling that trigger, then they have to be soulless.”

This week, Valenti sat with Rochetta Tyler’s mother, Carol Tyler, and talked about how Kanari’s shooting brought back memories of Michelle.

“She said, yes it does, the sitting, the waiting, the hoping, the praying,” Valenti relayed. “You’ve got to trust in God, so that’s what they’re doing, God got the last word.”

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