Chicago 7-Year-Old Girl Shot Dead While Selling Lemonade
Chicago officials are brimming with outrage after a random shooting killed a 7-year-old girl as she sold lemonade with her mother in front of their West Side home.
A coalition of ministers and community leaders has demanded that the shooter come forward, offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who killed Heaven Sutton, CBS Chicago reported.
“It’s a sad day in Chicago,” said the Rev. Ira Acree of the Leaders Network ministry, which put up the reward.
The girl had just gotten her hair done for a trip to Disney World the family planned for next month and was sitting outside her home selling lemonade, candy and snacks, CBS reported. Two men opened fire near her home, and Heaven was struck with a stray bullet.
Heaven’s mother, Ashake Banks, said she was devastated to see her daughter die in front of her. Heaven had asked to move out of the neighborhood where the family had lived for six months because of the violence there.
“For her to die like this – 7 years old, lying on a slab cold, her eyes just open, blood coming out her nose – I just want him to turn himself in,” Banks told CBS. “That’s all that I ask of him. And I’m asking for Chicago to help me.”
Heaven’s shooting comes amid a year overflowing with violence in the city, the Chicago Tribune reported. She was the 20th person under the age of 17 killed by gunfire in Chicago this year, the Tribune found. There have been 250 total homicides in the city for the year, up 40 percent from last year.
