Special education teacher fatally shot 10 times near Garfield Ridge home: 'She didn't deserve this'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Police said a Chicago Public Schools teacher was killed by someone she knew, but have offered no additional details about the suspect.

At this time, police say, no one is in custody. For the family of Adrianna Lopez, it just doesn't seem real.

"I'm still in denial. I can't accept it. I'm thinking, you know, she's at work right now. She'll be coming to visit us very soon," said Michelle Martinez, the victim's niece.

Martinez is mourning her aunt, best friend and second mother, who was gunned down on Sunday night on her Garfield Ridge block.

"She didn't deserve this," Martinez said. "No one deserves to die like that, to go away like that."

Lopez, who was 37 years old, was steps from her home in the 5400 block of South Narragansett Avenue when, police say, she was approached by a man she knew in a dark-colored SUV just after 9:30 p.m.

Martinez says the family has been told that the man got out of the vehicle, argued at length with Lopez, and then, opened fire. Police said she was shot at least 10 times.

"She didn't even have the chance to protect herself, to defend herself. Wasn't right," Martinez said.

Relatives say Lopez was a special education teacher at Nathan S. Davis Elementary School in Brighton Park.

After getting a master's degree, she aspired to be a school principal. Relatives say Lopez's students were her world.

"Every time we needed something, she was there. She was always there," Martinez said.

On Lopez's block, there are multiple doorbell cameras. Several neighbors came to her aid after she was shot, and ABC7 was told she was initially conscious and talking before eventually succumbing to her injuries.

Area One detectives are investigating.

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