Girl, 15, fatally shot in front of siblings while fleeing attempted robbery on South Side: family
'She was building her future': Family, community groups offer $13K reward for information leading to arrest
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Demea Morris' family said before she was killed, she and her siblings were trying to get away from an attempted robbery when people shot at them.
The family of 15-year-old Demea said the ambitious teenager was trying to work her way up in the world.
"She was in the middle of nursing school, a 15-year-old girl. Most of them don't really care about much. She was building her future," said Toni Turner, Demea's aunt. "She loved dancing, laughing, playing, cracking jokes. She loved excelling."
But, that future was taken from her in an Easter morning tragedy. Chicago police said Morris died after she was shot in the head on Sunday morning while in the backseat of an SUV near 106th and Sangamon in the Washington Heights neighborhood.
Morris' family said she was in the SUV with her siblings, who watched the whole thing happen after surviving another scary situation before the shooting.
"They were in the middle of being robbed, and got away from the people who were trying to rob them, and they shot after them," Turner said. "In the midst of pulling off of getting away from avoiding getting robbed they started getting shot at and they tried to go to the hospital while on the phone with police and they (police) pulled them over because they were able to track them down."
On Monday night, Morris' family honoring her life in Jackie Robinson Park.
"You took a lovely person, you understand. She was very smart, very intelligent and very witty," Turner said. "For some bum to want to be greedy, and take something from somebody? You took more than what you could even imagine."
Their cries for a life lost were just as loud as their cries for justice.
"Say something. A parent-parents are suffering. Siblings are suffering," Turner said.
The family together with community groups the Andrew Holmes Foundation and All Kids Matter are offering a $13,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest.
"What you did and the decision you made was wrong. This wasn't a mistaken identity. This was first degree murder," said community activist Andrew Holmes.
