Children Harmed

On their shared birthday, Jayden Perkins and Kameron Miles would each get a cupcake with a candle in it while friends and family sang to them.

Born six years apart, on May 28th, the brothers were bonded by more than just a date.

Older brother Jayden would trick-or-treat with Kameron on Halloween and taught him how to spell his name. For Kameron, Jayden was his hero.

But their tradition of shared candles and shared memories came to a horrific end in 2024, when 11-year-old Jayden was stabbed to death inside their home -- killed while trying to protect their mother, Laterria Smith, from her violent ex-boyfriend. Five-year-old Kameron witnessed the entire attack.

Jayden was one of 329 children murdered in Chicago between 2020 and 2024. He was one of 17 killed in a domestic violence incident during the same time period.

"He just wants to know why his brother is not here anymore," Smith said. "I felt like he did what any little boy would do for that mom, trying to help... trying to help me."

What happened to the family is not an isolated tragedy but part of a broader crisis quietly unfolding behind closed doors throughout Chicago and elsewhere.

Domestic violence in Chicago was already at crisis levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. But when the city shut down in early 2020, so did access to safety for many families. Children in troubled homes no longer had the safe haven afforded by classrooms. And while Jayden's murder came a year after the formal end of the pandemic, children's exposure to violence continues to rise.

According to an analysis by the CBS News Data Team, the number of children present during domestic violence crimes in Chicago jumped 35% the first year of the pandemic, from about 8,200 kids in 2020 to about 11,000 kids in 2021.

Most of the crimes children were present for were domestic batteries, but they were also exposed to nonviolent domestic crimes such as phone threats, stalking, property damage to homes and cars, and violating orders of protection.

The increase stretches back more than a decade. In 2010, just over 5,800 Chicago kids were present at both violent and nonviolent domestic crimes. That number has more than doubled; about 13,300 kids were present during a domestic crime in 2024.

Since 2010, an average of 3,900 kids were reported annually as domestic victims, according to the CBS News analysis of Chicago police victim demographic data, domestic violence data and protective order data from the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, all obtained through multiple Freedom of Information Act requests and a court order.

Laterria Smith remembers the morning of March 13, 2024 in haunting detail.

"I usually wake them up around 7 a.m. They'll get up, brush their teeth, wash their face, get their clothes on," she said. "Sometimes we didn't pack lunch the night before. We'll pack lunch in the morning. That particular morning, we did everything except pack lunch."

Smith said her sons then talked with their grandmother on the phone.

"Every morning my mother would call, checking on the boys and telling them to have a good day. And she loved them," Smith said.

"[It was] a regular, normal day for us," she recalled. "Not thinking danger was waiting on the other side of that door."

The danger was Crosetti Brand, her ex-boyfriend. They had first dated when she was 15. Over time, Smith filed an order of protection, in which she stated that Brand became controlling and verbally abusive, according to court records. Years later, believing he had changed, she said they reconnected.

She was wrong.

The morning of Jayden's murder, Brand forced his way into the home.

"As I opened the door, I was pushed right back in and grabbed from the neck, like in a chokehold. I was just screaming, begging 'Jayden, Jayden! Get your brother! Get out of here! Get out of here!'" Smith recalled.

Unbeknownst to her, she had been stabbed 13 times.

"I didn't know that I was being stabbed because my adrenaline was going and I'm just so worried about my kids and getting my kids out of there," she said.

Jayden tried to intervene and was also stabbed.

Smith said she ran down the hall in an attempt to get Brand away from her kids.

"Blood was just gushing from my neck, and I was like, 'I'm about to die,'" she said.

She said she went into her bedroom and put her back against the door while Brand kicked the door trying to get in.

"At this point, I'm losing so much blood, it's like I'm about to faint," Smith said. "But I kept telling myself, your kids aren't there. Get up."

The kicking at the door stopped. She said she screamed for Jayden, but there was no answer.

"I see my baby laying by the front door not moving," Smith said through tears. "This can't be happening. I said 'Jayden, please get up.'"

But he didn't move.

"It just looked like my baby was sleeping right there on the floor, all the while Kameron is still standing there looking," Smith said.

Five-year-old Kameron saw everything. Smith said he called his father on an iPad, sobbing, "Mommy and Jayden are dead."

Weeks earlier, Smith had warned the court that Brand had threatened her life. She filed a petition for an emergency protective order, writing that Brand had sent several text messages saying he would "kill me and my family."

The judge denied her emergency request.

A court transcript showed the judge did not consider this an emergency because Brand was locked up at the time for a parole violation related to a domestic violence case involving a different woman.

Then, just before the murder, Brand was released from prison. He was supposed to be placed on electronic monitoring -- but the monitor was never attached, CBS News Chicago sources confirmed. He was told to get it in Chicago.

Instead, he went to Smith's home.

In the wake of Jayden's death, CBS News Chicago uncovered a cascade of failures involving the Illinois Department of Corrections, the Prisoner Review Board, and the court system. Two members of the parole board resigned. Smith has filed a civil lawsuit against the state.

A jury found Brand, 39, guilty of Jayden's murder last month, in addition to 16 other counts.

"I want to know why they didn't do their job," Smith said.

And while Smith sought an order of protection, a separate CBS News Chicago investigation revealed only one out of every four orders of protection are actually served in Cook County.

That lack of service contributed to another tragedy that cost the life of Maria Roque in 2023. She was shot in front of her West Side home and died in front of her then 8-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son.

Jayden became the face of children who recently lost their lives to domestic violence, joining Daniela Alvarez, 15, who died alongside her mother Karina Alvarez-Gonzalez in 2023, and Amarise Parker, also 15, who was strangled by her 24-year-old boyfriend in that same year.

"It's definitely shocking -- and not so shocking," said Char Rivette, chief executive officer of Chicago Children's Advocacy Center, which provides trauma-focused services to child victims.

"Over 90% of the individuals seeking help for domestic violence have children," she said.

Between 2020 and 2024, police reported 248 domestic-related homicides in Chicago, including adults and children. In 22 of those, children were present during the killings. While those numbers capture the most extreme outcomes, a slew of injuries, batteries and abuse carry their own trauma.

By combining anonymized Chicago police victim demographic and injury data and domestic violence case data, CBS News determined how many children were present for domestic violence injuries.

The number of children exposed to choking injuries, like Smith's, more than doubled from 253 in 2020 to 535 in 2024.

"You know, it's really hard for these, uh, children exposed to violence like that to truly, truly believe they're gonna be okay in the long run." Rivette said. "It's just compounded in terms of the stress, the anxiety, the fear that child's going to feel."

Children in Chicago are repeatedly exposed to this trauma over and over.

It's hard to tell exactly how many children are repeatedly exposed to trauma in the data because their identities are protected. However, by comparing the number of children present where an order of protection was reported, it's possible to see how often some children are exposed to repeated abuse.

In Chicago, police records show roughly 1,000 children were exposed to domestic incidents more than once since 2010.

Because children are not identified by name in police data, the number is likely much higher.

Rivette's organization is not treating Kameron, but she knows how domestic violence impacts children.

"One immediate effect is just being withdrawn; internalizing that fear and anxiety and maybe self-abuse, or just shutting themselves off from others," she said.

She said just because a child seems fine, you shouldn't necessarily believe they are.

"They must be okay because they're not crying. They're not screaming. Uh, they're not acting out. But in a lot of ways, that's even scarier," said Rivette. "Many of these kids don't get the help they need. There's not one place right now where a survivor of domestic violence can go and just seek all the help that they can possibly get.

Laterria Smith believes the number of children exposed to any type of abuse is likely higher than what's reported. And many survivors never seek help.

"Half the time, when someone's going through domestic violence, they don't call the police," Smith said.

And yet, mental health services for child survivors remain fragmented and underfunded in Chicago.A recent investigation by Block Club Chicago, highlighted funding threats to organizations serving survivors of domestic violence.

Federal funds have become imperiled by cuts under the Trump administration, and city funds have dried up as money from the American Rescue Plan Act is set to expire this year, potentially affecting legal and housing services.

"The system is definitely broken in Chicago, in Illinois," Rivette said.

Jayden's death wasn't just a personal loss for his family. It became a flashpoint -- one that exposed systemic failures and prompted resignations.

But there is still one more child deeply impacted by the incident.

At the time of the attack, Smith was pregnant. Her baby girl was born early, but healthy.

Smith named her Jayda, after the big brother she will only know through photos and stories.

"When she gets older, I would definitely let her know about her brother and how he was a hero," she said.

Jayden was on a full-ride dance scholarship at the Gus Giordano Dance School in Andersonville neighborhood. The Gus Legacy Foundation is raising money for the Jayden Perkins Memorial Scholarship.

Smith said she thinks Jayden's legacy will be one of change.

"I'm gonna be my son's voice. I'm gonna use my voice and let other people know to never give up," she said.