Oceanea Jones, 21, fatally shot in Gresham as she ran from 4 men; $5K reward offered
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 21-year-old woman was fatally shot early Tuesday in the Gresham neighborhood after being chased by four men who asked if her boyfriend was in a gang, Chicago police said.
Oceanea Jones, a graduate of Johnson College Prep, and her boyfriend were innocent victims with no criminal history or gang affiliation, police said. A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of her killer.
At about 1 a.m., Jones and her boyfriend were at the Falcon Fuel gas station at 79th Street and Ashland Avenue on the South Side. The 20-year-old boyfriend had just gotten off work and she met him at the bus stop before going to the gas station to buy snacks.
As they were walking home, they were followed by four men. They asked if the boyfriend was in a gang. When they said no, they started running and the group of men chased them.
Security footage from a nearby business shows the pair running down the street towards and alley, pursued by the men.
WATCH: Oceana Jones' boyfriend talks about the moments before she was shot
The pair got separated, but when Jones' boyfriend doubled back, he found that she had been shot in the back in the 500-block of West 79th Street.
Jones pronounced dead at the scene. The boyfriend was not injured.
No one was in custody Tuesday morning. The men ran off after the shooting, police said.
Jones' family is heartbroken.
"I went over there and I saw my baby laying on the street," said Kenyatta Jones, her mother, at a Tuesday night vigil. "I ask my baby to get up, her mama was here, and my baby wouldn't get up. My baby was so cold, my baby was so cold."
"She was a straight-A student. She just graduated. She stayed in the house and now she came outside with her boyfriend at the bus stop and some dudes chased them," said Carlos Jones, her uncle.
"You're a coward, man. You're a punk. And all you got is a gun to make you feel like you're somebody, but you're nobody," said Father Michael Pfleger at the vigil.
Now the Auburn Gresham community is on a mission to track down her killer
"Everybody who knows needs to tell. Speak up. Tell us who did it. Understand that a person who killed once will kill again," Pfleger said.
But in a sign of how deep violence runs in the community, a fight erupted as the crowd walked to pass out flyers trying to track down the gunman.
Some neighbors said the shooting was part of an ongoing gang war in the area.
"This is a really high violent area, I mean really high violence over here all the time," said Demetrius Mingo, who lives in the neighborhood. 'This won't be the first innocent person in this neighborhood. There's been many multiple bodies on this exact ground that we're standing here right now of innocent people that have died in this neighborhood."
Chicago police's Area South detectives are investigating.
