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"The mother of one of the children shot last week while sitting in a van admits she has her shortcomings but said no one was looking out for her child.The two people who were in charge of taking care of the 11-year-old girl are in jail.\"I feel horrible,\" Chavonne Smith said.VIDEO:\u00A0Mother of girl shot while sitting in van speaks outSmith is the mother of 11-year-old Shawnique James, one of two children shot at 37th and Hadley streets last week.\"How could they let that happen? They were supposed to protect the kids, but they didn't,\" Smith said.\u00A0Shawnique was released from the hospital and is going to be fine, but her mother got a second shock this week when she saw the conditions her daughter had been living in prior to the shooting.Investigators went to the home of Shawnique's father, Lashawn James, and his girlfriend Octavia Burton. They found it roach-infested, unsanitary and unfit to live in.\"I was just real distraught about the whole situation. I was torn up inside, torn up,\" Smith said.Smith said she suffers from a mental illness and lost custody of Shawnique and her three other children a year ago when she was charged with physically abusing one of them with an extension cord.She said the courts put Shawnique in her father's care. Police believe he took part in the shootout that left Shawnique injured. Smith said she understands how she lost the kids, but she's asking what kind of system would transfer her daughter to unspeakable living arrangements.\"I'm battling a mental health illness, you know? I got my flaws. I made my mistakes but for them to let this happen to my child, I'm just very upset. I'm hurt, like they failed me. I feel like they failed my daughter. She's only 11 years old. She should never have had to experience anything like that,\" Smith said.Burton is being held on child neglect charges, and the girl's father is being held on parole violations.All seven of the children living with them are in protective custody.\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wisn.com/article/mother-of-girl-shot-in-van-last-week-questions-system/6322524>