Vigil Honors Nala Watts as Woman Is Taken into Custody

There is a particular grief that settles over a neighborhood when a child is taken—a grief that is not abstract but immediate, that gathers at the site of the loss with candles and flowers and the faces of people who cannot quite believe what has happened. In Chicago's Chatham neighborhood, that grief gathered on Saturday evening for a seven-year-old girl who was stabbed to death inside her own home. A woman is in police custody. The investigation continues. And a community is left to ask how a child could be taken in a place where she should have been safest.

The girl has been identified as Nala Watts. She was a second grader at a local elementary school. On Friday afternoon, officers responded to a call in the 400 block of East 87th Place and found Nala with stab wounds. She was rushed to Comer Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead . A 31-year-old woman was taken into custody at the scene and was receiving a mental health evaluation, according to police . The relationship between the woman and the child has not been publicly detailed, but neighbors described her as someone who lived in the home.

The vigil on Saturday drew dozens of people—family members, classmates, teachers, and neighbors who had watched Nala grow up on the block. They stood in the cool autumn air, holding candles and balloons, singing and praying, trying to make sense of something that resists sense. A small memorial of stuffed animals and flowers grew at the entrance to the building where she had lived .

Chicago has seen its share of violence, but the death of a child—inside her home, at the hands of someone she knew—carries a particular weight. It is the kind of loss that does not fit into the categories we use to organize tragedy. It is not a shooting on a street corner or a dispute between rivals. It is a child, in her home, on a Friday afternoon. The kind of death that should not happen, that we tell ourselves does not happen, until it does.

The woman in custody has not been charged. Police have not released further details about the circumstances of the stabbing or the relationship between the suspect and the victim. The investigation is ongoing. For the people of Chatham, the questions will linger long after the candles have burned out and the balloons have drifted away. Nala Watts was seven years old. She was a second grader. She was at home. And now she is gone.

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Sources: Chicago Police Department, WGN-TV, Chicago Sun-Times, Block Club Chicago, ABC7 Chicago