Chanda Thompson and two friends were killed while they were out buying her two-year-old daughter a birthday cake from “A Piece of Cake” bakery in Chicago.
Chanda Thompson, 21, was picking up her daughter’s birthday cake with two friends at a Chicago bakery early Saturday evening when a gunman approached their parked car and opened fire, according to police.
The mother and her two friends, Cortez Champion, 21, and Shawn Russell, 21, were killed.
Chanda Thompson’s brother Joshua Thompson, 22, told The Chicago Sun Times:
“She was working, going to school and raising a two-year-old.
“I don’t understand why this happened. She was my best friend. You couldn’t meet a better person,” he said.
A 17-year-old is in custody in relation to the shooting after witnesses say they saw the shooter approach their vehicle, parked outside “A Piece of Cake” bakery, and fire before fleeing the scene.
“…they were in the car and he just came up and started shooting,” a witness told NBC affiliate WMAQ.
“And he shot all of them.”
Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, with the third succumbing this his injuries at an area hospital.
The suspect in custody, picked out of a photo lineup, has not been charged as of Sunday evening.
Cortez Champion was a grade school friend of Chanda Thompson’s and Shawn Russell her boyfriend, according to her family.
Police are currently investing the two men’s possible relation to the shooter, though a motive is not currently known.
“I don’t know what happened, but I know those bullets were not intended for her,” Joshua Thompson said.
Chanda Thompson’s two-year-old, Nazhia, unknowing what had happened to her mother, still had her birthday party, however.
The little girl celebrated wearing a small tiara on her head.
“We tried to keep our spirits up, but it was hard,” Joshua Thompson said.
Family decorated with balloons and purchased a new cake for the girl, abandoning the former one in the backseat of the car, covered in broken glass.
Family members said they didn’t know how to tell the girl, how to begin to explain what had happened to her mom.
Camille Williams, a friend of Ms Thompson told ABC affiliate WSL-TV:
“She loved her family.
“It is such a tragedy that she was murdered and she left behind a 2-year-old baby.”
“Everyone called her “Smiley” because she was always smiling,” Joshua Thompson described his sister whom he said was studying at a nearby college for her nursing degree before going to the bakery early Saturday evening.
Around Chanda Thompson’s education her brother says she was also working at a daycare facility in the nearby area.
