Devout 'God-fearing' woman killed by stray bullet in front of Austin home, blocks away from church

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A $10,000 reward is being offered after a 55-year-old woman was killed Tuesday while getting out of her car on in the Austin neighborhood.

She has been identified as Tracey Showers, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday.

The shooting occurred in the 5500-block of West Le Moyne Street at about 9:50 p.m., according to Chicago police.

A relative of the victim who was also leaving the car saw that she had been shot in the face, police said.

She was transported to Loyola Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, police said.

Showers was the lifeblood of her Austin church community, her family and minister said.

"She loved her church, her family and anyone she came into contact with," said Showers' daughter, Janea Kitchen.

With tears streaming down her face, Kitchen said her mother -- who was also a wife, mentor and friend -- was taken too soon by a stray bullet Tuesday night right outside of her Austin home.

"We gonna miss her. I love you mommy. I'm proud of you. I'm so proud of you," she said.

Her husband, Pernell Showers, is calling on the killer to come forward.

"No decent family man should find any loved one, a child, a wife, a husband on the street gunned down in front of their home," he said. "What I want, what my family wants -- we want a piece of justice and we want peace. I don't want this to go as another unsolved."

"It does not make any sense at all for this good woman to be gunned down like she was," said Rev. Ira Acree, Greater St. John Bible Church.

Acree was visibly emotional and calling for anyone who knows the killer to come forward.

"If you take someone's life, you need to be locked up and I don't care if they throw away the key," he said.

Alderman Chris Taliaferro, 29th Ward, who chairs the City Council Public Safety Committee and attends Greater St. Johns, said he's asking police for more help.

"It hurts to see that she was gunned down and I am going to beg of our police department day and night to make sure that her murder is solved," he said.

There is a prayer service 7 p.m. at Greater St. John's Wednesday.

Police said no one is in custody.

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