Demea Morris’ family stated that she and her siblings were attempting to flee an attempted robbery when they were shot at.
Demea’s family said the 15-year-old was ambitious and trying to make her way in the world.
“She was in the middle of nursing school, a 15-year-old girl. Most of them don’t really care about much. She was building her future,” said Toni Turner, Demea’s aunt. “She loved dancing, laughing, playing, cracking jokes. She loved excelling.”
But her future was snatched away in an Easter morning tragedy. Morris was shot in the head in the backseat of an SUV near 106th and Sangamon in the Washington Heights neighborhood on Sunday morning, according to Chicago police.
Morris’ family said she was in the SUV with her siblings, who witnessed the entire incident after surviving another terrifying situation prior to the shooting.
“They were in the middle of being robbed, and got away from the people who were trying to rob them, and they shot after them,” Turner said. “In the midst of pulling off of getting away from avoiding getting robbed they started getting shot at and they tried to go to the hospital while on the phone with police and they (police) pulled them over because they were able to track them down.”
Morris’ family paid tribute to her life in Jackie Robinson Park on Monday night.
“You took a lovely person, you understand. She was very smart, very intelligent and very witty,” Turner said. “For some bum to want to be greedy, and take something from somebody? You took more than what you could even imagine.”
Their cries for a lost life were as audible as their cries for justice.
“Say something. A parent-parents are suffering. Siblings are suffering,” Turner said.
The family, in collaboration with the Andrew Holmes Foundation and All Kids Matter, is offering a $13,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
“What you did and the decision you made was wrong. This wasn’t a mistaken identity. This was first degree murder,” said community activist Andrew Holmes.