She wanted to be a signer, according to her family.
"She says, 'Mom, I want to be somebody in my life,'" Hattie Jackson said.
McDaniel was shot multiple times on Monday around 5 p.m. as she sat on a porch in the Englewood neighborhood near 57th and Sangamon with her cousin and several friends. Four others were wounded.
One of the injured victims, a 16-year-old who was shot in the arm and does not want to be identified, said a Grand Cherokee Jeep carrying four men pulled up and asked McDaniel's group if they were selling drugs. When they replied no, he said, a masked driver opened fire.
"She got shot in the legs, chest and one in the neck," the 16-year old said.
McDaniel's mother and sister, Bridgette, were across the street when they heard the gunfire.
"I looked outside and saw my brother pick up my sister and took her into the house. That is when I screamed, 'My sister, April. My sister, April,'" Bridgette Jackson said. McDaniel is the third sibling in the family to die. Two others died in a house fire years ago.
McDaniel's family hopes her killer will be caught. The Jeep used in the shooting was found burning in an alley a few hours after the shooting.
"I'm angry. I'm sad. I know I'm not going to bring my daughter back," Hattie Jackson said.
