Youth mentor shot to death at Near North Side block club party was trying to change lives, mom says

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Taniya Smith, 20, was a youth mentor with Hood Heroes, a group that helps get teens summer jobs.

She was shot and killed during a block club party on the Near North Side over the weekend.

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Her mother, Cherie Stanfield, dropped her off at that gathering, not knowing it would be the last time she would see her daughter alive. She says Taniya was trying to change lives.

"It feels like my heart is breaking in my chest, like, hurting," Cherie said.

An end-of-the summer bash marked the end of Taniya's life.

"What am I going to do without you?" Cherie said. "You be around somebody for 20 years, like, I kind of grew up with her."

The 20-year-old was shot during a large gathering at the Frances Cabrini rowhomes early Sunday morning.

"Those are all the kids she grew up with since she's been in, like, kindergarten. It's just crazy that this happened in the place where she thought she was the most safest," Cherie said.

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Cell video shows officers trying to disperse the crowd on scene near Cambridge and Delaware after, police said, an unknown offender shot Smith in the chest.

"The ambulance is trying to save someone's life! On the sidewalk!" one officer can be heard saying in the video.

Paramedics had to carry the victim blocks away to get her into an ambulance.

Taniya later died at the hospital.

"My niece does not deserve this, and you are a wonderful mom," said Xiomara Stanfield, the victim's aunt.

Sherie's mothering, in fact, shined through her daughter's impact on young people.

Taniya grew up part of the By the Hand Club for Kids after-school program and eventually became a youth mentor with Hood Heroes.

That impact is now torn away.

"And I hope nobody has to feel it," Cherie said. "You'll never feel it until it's you. You'll never feel it, and I hope nobody has to feel it."

That cell phone video also shows a man being placed into police custody, but at this time, police would not say if any charges were filed in connection to the shooting.

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