Melinda Crump, a 54-year-old African American woman, was killed on December 18, 2021, in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood after being struck by a stray bullet in the abdomen while walking to buy lottery tickets on the 4900 block of West Gladys Avenue. The shooting began when 26-year-old Travis Andrews fired multiple shots at an unidentified person during an altercation; that person returned fire and one of the rounds that hit Crump proved fatal. Surveillance footage captured Andrews and his girlfriend arguing with occupants of a car two blocks east of the shooting location.

Andrews told police he had gone to the area to buy marijuana, retrieved a .380-caliber revolver from his mother’s house, and fired at someone he could not see after an alleged threat to his girlfriend. Prosecutors charged Andrews with murder for initiating the gunfight, though a Cook County grand jury declined to indict him on first-degree murder charges and instead led to weapons charges; Judge Mary Marubio ordered him held without bail and barred him from contacting witnesses while proceedings continued. The other shooter has not been identified or charged.

Anyone who saw the shooting or can identify the person who returned fire is asked to come forward.