Toddler Found Alive in Apartment After His Mother and Grandfather Were Shot to Death

"She doesn't even have an enemy in this world. For somebody to take her life, you've got to be some demon or monster," Javonni Jenkins' cousin said after she and her father were shot to death

Photo: GoFundMe

A 2-year-old boy was found alive in a Chicago apartment after his mother and grandfather were fatally shot inside.

Javonni Jenkins' co-workers became worried after she didn't show up for her Wednesday shift at Holy Cross Hospital. When Nicole Worth, a friend and colleague of Jenkins' called her via FaceTime, it was Jenkins' 2-year-old son that answered, Worth told The Chicago Sun-Times.

"After a certain amount of time, you realize nobody has come to check on the baby. You know nobody was talking to the baby," Worth told the outlet. "I could see that he had no clothes on; he was just in a diaper. So now something's wrong."

Worth said she then called authorities and asked police to perform a welfare check.

Once at the scene, officers found Jenkins, 27, and her father Curtis Hardman, 79, fatally shot, police told the Sun-Times.

"The whole time I had the baby on the phone, he was very content, playing with his toys," Worth told reporters, per the outlet.

She added, "We came a little too late. We saved the baby. That's all we could do."

Another friend who was with Worth at the apartment complex, and wanted to remain anonymous, told NBC News, "[The police officers] gave us the baby. They gave us [the child] and then we walked downstairs until they came in and informed us that [Jenkins] was gone."

Deputy Chief Senora Ben of the Chicago Police Department said in a press briefing that the CPD received a phone call to do a welfare check on the 8100 block of South Drexel. Once officers responded and entered the apartment, they found "two victims fatally deceased in the apartment."

"There was a 2-year-old male on scene, unharmed, and he was taken to the hospital," Ben added.

She noted that local officers were speaking with anyone who may have seen or heard what happened. However, she declined to answer whether authorities have a suspect in mind.

"At this time this is an active investigation. I can't give any other information," she said, adding that it was an "isolated incident," and there's no cause for the community to be concerned.

Per Ben, authorities did not recover any weapons at the apartment.

CPD's Deputy Director of News Affairs and Communications, Tom Ahern, later confirmed via Twitter that the victims "sustained fatal gunshot wounds."

Jenkins' cousin Germaine Owens told NBC News, "She doesn't even have an enemy in this world. For somebody to take her life, you've got to be some demon or monster."

He added that Jenkins and the toddler had a very close bond.

"We had get-togethers and he would be glued right to her side. If you see [Javonni], you're going to see the baby."

Of Hardman, Owens said he was an amazing father and grandfather who took care of Jenkins as a solo parent after her mother died when she was 4.

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A GoFundMe has been started to raise money for the victims' funeral expenses.

The campaign described Jenkins as a "devoted single mother to her son... who was abruptly taken away by a heartless individual."

It added, "Her only guilty trait was she saw the good in every single person she met, and stayed connected to people longer than she should have. Which ended in tragedy and be the reason she lost her life so soon."

Proceeds will also go toward helping the child "who lost the only parent he ever had," the GoFundMe said.