Maria Haydee Roque, a 34-year-old mother of two, was shot and killed on the steps outside her West Side Chicago home on December 13, 2023. The shooting was witnessed by her 8-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son. Authorities say the killing followed a pattern of escalating harassment and violence by her former boyfriend, Kenneth Brown.

In the weeks before the homicide Roque obtained a protection order and filed multiple police reports documenting assaults, threats, a slashed tire on November 8, harassing calls and texts on November 11 and 12, a rock thrown through her front window on November 13, and her car being set on fire on November 24; the latter was captured on video. Her first report, filed on Halloween 2023, described an assault in which she was thrown to the ground and pinned. Her twin brother Andres Roque was also involved in a physical altercation with Brown after defending her, and that incident produced no police action.

Despite the protection order, the Cook County Sheriff’s Department was unable to serve Brown and the order was never enforced; police suspended all but one of her cases, and the arson case was also suspended even though video showed someone starting the fire. Advocates point to multiple missed opportunities for intervention that left Roque vulnerable in the weeks before her death.

If anyone knew Maria, her movements that December, or has information about the threats she reported, please come forward to share what you know.