Family identified the victim as 57-year-old Eunice Moman. They said she was a beloved mother and grandmother and had two great-grandchildren. She was described as a selfless friend, who would help anyone.
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"If your loved one was hurt, you would want them to do the right thing," Moman's cousin said.
Authorities responded at about 2:16 a.m. to the fire in the 200-block of South Lavergne Avenue. Neighbors called 911 after smelling smoke.
"I woke up to smoke coming from under the floor, under the radiator board and it smelled plastic and I went through the whole house to see what was burning," resident Stacy Adams said. "When I went outside, I looked outside from a window. I seen the smoke next door. The flames coming from next door on the third floor."
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Moman was found, and taken to Stroger Hospital, where she died. That's where doctors discovered that she had been shot.
A downstairs neighbor said a gunshot was heard.
"This is their mom, their grandmom. Nothing is good about this," Moman's cousin said. "Just give them the love and support that they're going to need now and for the rest of their lives because the one that they would get it from is no longer here."
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Moman's downstairs neighbor, who did not want to give her name, said they were good friends. She heard some strange noises Friday morning and knew something was off.
"I heard some noise, and I knocked on the ceiling to let me know if she was OK because that was our signal," she said. "I heard something knock back like three times, and so I called her and I texted her and she didn't respond."
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Police said they are conducting a death investigation. No one else was injured in the fire.
Investigators, including the bomb and arson unit were going in and out of the apartment Friday.
No one was in custody later Friday.
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"When I saw them bring her out, I couldn't believe it," neighbor Rasheedah Warren said.
Moman was known to many around the neighborhood.
"She meant a lot to me. She was like an auntie to me because that's my auntie's childhood best friend," Warren said. "She didn't do nothing to nobody. She didn't do nothing to anybody. She would give you the clothes off her back."
Neighbor Sharon Rainey also spoke fondly of Moman.
"I was shocked, and I had to cry because that's my friend. She wasn't a bad person," she said.
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