A woman has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing a seven-year-old girl in an attack police described as unprovoked on a sidewalk in Chicago.
Shavon Gayden, 48, faces one count of first-degree murder, Chicago police said in a statement on Sunday. The killing occurred just before noon on Saturday in the Chatham neighborhood. The victim was identified by local media and the medical examiner’s office as Eddimar Hernandez-Chacon.
Attack on a busy thoroughfare
Police and prosecutors said the girl was walking with her 17-year-old sister when Gayden allegedly grabbed the younger child and fatally stabbed her on a busy thoroughfare, the Chicago Tribune reported. Bystanders chased Gayden and held her until police arrived, according to police, who arrested her at the scene.
The Cook county state’s attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, said Gayden was supposed to appear in court on Monday but remained hospitalized. A new hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday.
Victim pronounced dead at hospital
Eddimar was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital. A security photo from a nearby business showed the girl walking hand in hand with an older female when she was attacked, WLS-TV reported.
It was not immediately clear if there was any relationship between the attacker and the girl. Police have not commented on a possible motive and declined Sunday to provide further details. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that an initial police report described the attack as “unprovoked”. The newspaper also reported that Gayden’s criminal history included other seemingly random attacks, including striking a Chicago Transit Authority employee, a charge for which she pleaded guilty and received two years of probation.
Family and legal response
Attempts to reach members of Gayden’s family by phone were unsuccessful, the AP reported. Matthew Hendrickson, press secretary for the Cook county public defender, said the office was assigned to Gayden at a hearing Monday but declined to comment further.
In a GoFundMe post to raise funds for a funeral, the girl’s uncle, Richard Hernandez Chacon, wrote that Eddimar’s “passing leaves an indescribable void and profound grief in all of us who loved her”. Messages left by the AP with Hernandez-Chacon and another person believed to be a family member were not immediately returned.
ABC7, a local station, reported on Monday that Gayden’s mother, who requested anonymity, apologized for the stabbing and said she had struggled to get mental health treatment for her daughter.
