Chicago mom reflects on death of 7-year-old son
Ollie Jean Holiness says 'there's no getting over this' after her son Jeremiah was shot and killed while sleeping in a car seat.
A Chicago mom whose son was shot and killed while sleeping in a car seat is using the tragedy as "motivation and courage" to pursue her dream of becoming a police officer.
Ollie Jean Holiness' 7-year-old son, Jeremiah Moore, was asleep in the family’s van in East Chicago when shots rang out. Holiness said her oldest child thought the sounds were fireworks until she realized the car was being ambushed.
She said the family was traveling home when her car was fired on. She looked around for the assumed fireworks but didn’t see any.
"It just started to dawn on me like those are not fireworks," she said on "Fox & Friends" Thursday. "The bullets are actually ricocheting off my car."
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Holiness tried to find help for her son at the fire department, but no one answered. She then rushed Jeremiah to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
"There’s no moving on," she told host Ainsley Earhardt. "I carried this baby for nine months. I got a chance to learn who he is and who he could possibly be in the future."
She said the suspects had not been apprehended by police as of Thursday morning.
Holiness explained that she wanted to be a police officer her whole life. She said she plans to pursue that career as soon as she is physically capable after her current pregnancy.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - OCTOBER 20: Police officers attend a Chicago Police Department promotion and graduation ceremony on October 20, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) ( Scott Olson/Getty Images)
"It’s not a result of my son’s death," she said of wanting to join law enforcement. "It definitely gives me more motivation and courage to keep pushing."
Holiness remembered her son as a happy, beautiful, loving child. Jeremiah loved sports, video games and playing with his siblings.
"Most of the time he was just very, very active," she said. "He was the energy of everybody’s day."
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She said there’s nothing in the world that could help her move on from Jeremiah’s death.
"There’s no getting over this," she said. "It’s a hard pill to swallow."
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