A 24-year-old Chicago woman was shot and killed while she reportedly tried to shield her 1-year-old child from the gunfire, it was reported.
The woman, identified as Brittney Hill in reports, was holding her infant girl when she spoke to someone around the 1200 Block of North Mason Avenue on the morning May 28. At around 8:50 a.m., two men emerged from a silver Chevy Impala and fired shots at the group of people, hitting Hill.
“She moved towards the rear of a parked vehicle and fell to the ground and laid over her child to shield her,” said Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Tannehill.
A group of people took her to West Suburban Hospital, and she was then pronounced dead, the spokeswoman added.
Ja'Mal Green, a local activist, said Hill loved her children and was a mother of two.
Chicago Police said that they don’t suspect Hill was the intended target of the shooting, but the shooting likely wasn’t random.
“This is not a random act of violence, unfortunately, police are investigating—it could be possibly have been a targeted incident due to gang conflicts and retaliations in the area,” Tannehill noted.
No suspects have been named in the case, and no one has been taken into custody. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing as Chicago detectives work view surveillance footage in the area.
“When Brittany was shot, she shielded her baby, was hit and fell protecting her,” Green said on Twitter. The baby “survived and will have to grow up without her mother,” he said.
“I’m sick and shocked and can’t believe it,” he said. “We must step up and stop this violence.”
Green said that to curb the violence in Chicago, “we need real innovative ideas that can really shake these communities.”
