Chicago mom killed in drive-by shooting in front of her kids day before son’s 7th birthday: family

A 26-year-old Chicago mother was killed in a drive-by shooting in front of her two children on Monday, a day before her son’s seventh birthday, according to the woman’s family.

Kristina de Jesus was shot multiple times outside her home in Chatham near 89th Street and South St. Lawrence Avenue, her family told WLS-TV. In the emergency room, they said her 6-year-old son pleaded for his mom to wake up, telling nurses, "Tomorrow is my birthday and my mom's throwing me a party."

CHICAGO WEEKEND SHOOTINGS LEAVE 52 WOUNDED, 9 DEAD, INCLUDING 7-YEAR-OLD GIRL GUNNED DOWN IN PARKED CAR

Chicago police reported a shooting had occurred Monday just before 3:30 p.m. in the 8900 block of South St. Lawrence, where a 26-year-old woman was struck twice and rushed to a hospital. 

The suspect fired multiple shots from a dark-colored vehicle traveling north on St. Lawrence, according to police. No one is in custody related to the shooting.

Despite the tragic loss, the family said they still celebrated the boy’s birthday on Tuesday, as his mother would have wanted. Now, the family is asking anyone with information on the shooting to speak with the police.

"This city has to be reclaimed by people who want to live," the victim’s aunt Dawn Henson-Smith told reporters. "The monsters who snatched her from her children are reckless and will do the same to someone else." 

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Over the weekend, there were 52 people wounded, and nine killed, in the more than three dozen shootings reported throughout Chicago, police said. The murder victims include a 7-year-old girl who was fatally shot as she sat in a parked car next to her younger sister.

On Tuesday, four more people were killed and three others wounded in shootings, including a 16-year-old boy who was fatally shot in the head while walking near a sidewalk at 7:20 p.m., according to police.

As of Sunday, murders in Chicago were up 3% citywide year-to-date compared to 2020, with 489 reported so far this year, police statistics show. The number of shooting incidents citywide was also up 12%, from 1936 in 2020 to 2176 in 2021.

August 19, 2021 at 12:42AM
Stephen Sorace
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