Baby Born After Mother Is Shot to Death Is Recovering in Hospital

Baby Born After Mother Is Shot to Death Is Recovering in Hospital
John Smithies
1/5/2018
Updated:
9/26/2019

A baby that was born after his mother was shot in the stomach is recovering in the hospital.

Both the mother, 21-year-old Marlazia Jones-Mattox and father, 23-year-old Keith Williams, were shot and killed on Monday, Jan. 1, in Columbus, Ohio. A third person was critically injured, according to Fox 8.

Jones-Mattox was 35 weeks pregnant at the time of the shooting, but doctors were able to successfully deliver the baby, named Markeith Kamar Jones-Mattox Williams.

Jones-Mattox was shot in the stomach several times during what appears to be a robbery of the family’s home, said police.

Her step-mother Tyra Mattox told NBC4i that she is hopeful little Markeith will recover.

“I was talking to him this morning and grabbed his little hand, and I told him his mom was watching over him, and it was almost like he gripped my finger a little bit,” said Tyra Mattox. “You can see both of them in the baby. It’s just, he’s just so beautiful.”

She added that she is struggling to understand why someone would shoot a woman who is eight months pregnant.

“She loved the world she loved her sisters and brothers. This is just senseless. I don’t know what’s wrong with the world today. It’s just senseless,” she said.

The baby was without oxygen for some time and needed a blood transfusion, Mattox said. Doctors are trying to bring his temperature back to normal.

Grandfather Jack Mattox said the family is waiting to find out if Markeith has brain damage. He said he will be there for the baby.

“I’m going to be there for him every day. Every day. He’ll be well taken care of. Believe me,” he told NBC4i.