St. Louis toddler shot to death in Pagedale

PAGEDALE -- A 17-month-old boy from St. Louis was killed Tuesday night when someone fired shots at his father's car. The boy -- Rashaad Bobbitt -- died at 9:41 p.m. Tuesday at St. Louis Children's Hospital, according to the St. Louis County medical examiner's office.

Rashaad's family lives in the 5700 block of Amelia Avenue in north St. Louis. The boy was riding in a car driven by his father, Richard Bobbitt, when it was hit by gunfire about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at the intersection of Kingsland Avenue and 70th Street.

Bobbitt had just finished boxing at a gym in Pagedale while Rashaad and Rashaad's mother, Chinara Meeks, slept in their red Ford sedan. They woke up and left the gym's parking lot. That's when the shooting started.

"Two minutes after we pulled out of the boxing gym, they shot it up," said Meeks. 20. "My baby was in my arms. He's the only one who got shot."

Meeks said Rashaad was hit once in the back of the head.

Police say 13 bullets were fired at the car.

The car carried two other young children -- two boys, ages 4 and 5 -- in the backseat, but they weren't hit. After the shooting, the boy's father drove to the Pagedale Police Department about six blocks away to get help, Pagedale Police Chief G. Thomas Walker said Tuesday night.

As they rushed to the police station, Meeks said she tried to give her son mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She had learned CPR while attending school to become a medical assistant.

"My baby never opened his eyes after he got shot," Meeks told the Post-Dispatch this morning.

It happened so fast, Meeks said, that she never got a good look at the shooters or their car.

"I just remember tinted windows," she said.

A witness told police that the shooter's car could be a newer-model gray or silver Chevrolet Impala or Malibu with tinted windows. That car was seen in the intersection at the time of the shooting.

Detectives with the St. Louis County Police Department are handling the investigation. No suspects have been identified. Walker, the police chief of Pagedale, said it's likely that the boy's father was the intended target. Meeks agreed.

"It had to be," she said. "That's the only thing I can think of."

Meeks, who works as a server at a downtown hotel, said she gave birth to Rashaad on Mother's Day 2007. He was born with a skull disorder and had to undergo surgery to have his skull reshaped, she said.

"He was a survivor," she recalled.

Meeks said Rashaad was a happy boy who was just learning the parts of his face and would proudly point them out when asked.

"He loved me so much," she said. "He kissed me all the time."

Meeks said Rashaad enjoyed watching Sponge Bob and that she was trying to find him a Sponge Bob Halloween costume.

The boys in the backseat were Bobbitt's 4-year-old son and Meeks' 5-year-old son. Meeks, who turns 21 on Saturday, is reeling from her son's murder -- and trying to calm her other son.

"My 5-year-old seen them take his brother away," Meeks said. "He woke up screaming."