CHICAGO (CBS) Heaven Sutton, 7, wanted to move because she was scared of shootings around her North Austin neighborhood home.
Now, police are searching for two men who opened fire at a group of people Wednesday night, and took Heaven’s life.
As CBS 2’s Susanna Song reports, Heaven was looking forward to escaping the neighborhood with a trip to Disney World next month. She had just gotten her hair styled for the trip Wednesday, when the shots rang out around 10:40 p.m. in front of her home in the 1700 block of North Luna Avenue.
Police say two men walked up to the group and opened fire as her she stood outside selling candy and snacks outside her home with her family. Heaven’s mother, Ashake Banks, ran the candy store for neighborhood kids under a canopy in front of the building where they lived, with the goal of keeping them out of trouble.
“I had just called Heaven. She was sitting right next to me on my shoulder. Just laying on my shoulder,” Banks said with a painful sigh.
Banks, 38, was watching helplessly as the little girl was gunned down.
“She was lying in the hallway unconscious,” Banks said. “I just want to say this here. You all can’t sleep. I couldn’t sleep. I’ll sleep when I die. And you all cannot just get away with killing my baby. You all took her life. She just got her hair did today. She was going to Disney World.”
Heaven was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 11:16 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
The shooting also wounded a 19-year-old man in the ankle.
Heaven was going into the second grade at Josephine Locke Elementary School.
“She was a diva at 7. She liked fashion. She loved expensive clothes. She liked to get her nails done; her hair done. Everybody knew her. There’s nothing else I really can say, because everybody knew her,” Banks said. “I just want him to come and just turn himself in, because I’m not going to sleep.”
Banks reiterated more than once that she wants the killer caught.
“I’ve got blood and stuff all over my clothes,” she said. “It’s tragic. I want this off, you know, he shouldn’t rest. He shouldn’t be at peace. He shouldn’t be happy.”
Banks told the paper she believed the she shooting was gang-relate, and the target was someone nearby.
Police say they do not know of a motive for the shooting. No one was in custody as of early Thursday.