Adrianna Mayes

Adrianna Mayes, a 21-year-old Black mother, was a graduate of the prestigious Whitney Young Magnet High School, class of 2013. Family said she was a good girl who focused all her attention on raising her beloved daughter, Kaniyah, who had turned one just two months before her mother's death. Adrianna lived on the same block where she grew up, a place filled with neighbors who had known her for years.

On the afternoon of Monday, October 3, 2016, Adrianna was standing outside on the sidewalk in her home block, the 10600 block of South State Street in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood. It was around 2 p.m., and she was with her 14-month-old daughter. Witnesses said she was chatting with an elderly neighbor who was sitting in a parked red sedan. Suddenly, the conversation was shattered by the sound of gunfire. Two groups of men began shooting at one another, and Adrianna was caught in the crossfire. Evidence markers would later litter several streets and yards at the scene, which was just feet from a daycare where five children were sleeping.

A neighbor, Harold Newton, heard what he estimated were at least 30 shots from at least two different guns. He looked out his door and saw Adrianna on the ground. "I know her, that’s why I ran out," he said. He rushed to her side while his sister called 911. Her baby was on the ground next to her, crying but physically unharmed. Newton rolled Adrianna over, unzipped her jacket, and saw she was bleeding heavily. He tried to apply pressure to the wound. "I tried to talk to her," he recalled. "She was just, you know, gasping for air." Another neighbor described her as being "like a fish out of water, just gasping for air."

Adrianna was struck in her left side and back. Paramedics rushed her to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she was pronounced dead at 2:56 p.m. An autopsy conducted by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office the next day confirmed she died from a gunshot wound to the back, and her death was ruled a homicide. Police stated that she was not the intended target of the shooting. A 22-year-old man was also injured in the exchange of gunfire, suffering a gunshot wound to his left hand. He took himself to Roseland Community Hospital and was listed in good condition.

The investigation was handled by Area South detectives with the Chicago Police Department. In the immediate aftermath, police found shell casings in the grass near the corner of 106th Place. A bullet had also shattered the passenger-side front window of Adrianna's car. Despite the broad daylight shooting and numerous witnesses, no one was immediately taken into custody.

The community was left reeling from the senseless violence that took a young mother's life. "It's sad and it's heart wrenching because 21 years old, she hasn't even lived her life yet," said neighbor Patricia Carter. "And to think that another innocent baby could have been a victim, it's sad." Salina Newton, another neighbor, mourned for Adrianna's daughter. "I feel bad for that girl's family. I feel bad for that baby. That baby's going to grow up without her mother." Adrianna’s daughter, Kaniyah, was cared for by relatives in the wake of the tragedy.

Adrianna's family started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover her funeral and burial expenses, with any additional funds to be put toward the care of her daughter. As of October 2016, no arrests had been made in connection with the shooting, and the Chicago Police Department's investigation was ongoing. The case remains unsolved.