Woman killed on birthday, four others shot in Washington Heights

Chanda Foreman spent the day before her death going to work, hanging out with her cousin and preparing to go out at night.

She went into her job at Comcast early, where her co-workers had decorated her desk and held a party in honor of her 37th birthday on Thursday, her family said.

Foreman was among five people shot when a gold Buick with four people inside pulled up and two gunmen opened fire from the back seat about 9:45 p.m. in the 9500 block of South Loomis, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Foreman, who lived in the 4300 block of West Ford City Drive, was pronounced dead at 10:25 p.m. on the way to Holy Cross Hospital, authorities said.

Two men were taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn after the shooting, which police called gang-related. One, 33, was shot in the neck and the other, 25, suffered gunshot wounds to the arm, side and back. A 45-year-old woman shot in the arm was taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, along with a 54-year-old woman with wounds to the leg and foot, police said. They were in fair-to-serious condition, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

Foreman’s family members gathered outside Holy Cross early Friday morning as they learned the news of her death. Some cried and others were dazed and said they couldn’t believe what they were being told.

Foreman was inside her car with another woman when two groups of people opened fire on each other from either end of the block and they both were shot, her mother, Cathy Geralds said. The three others were shot on the front porch of Foreman’s aunt’s home, Geralds said.

Geralds heard about the shooting from her cousin, whose wife was among the victims, Geralds said. When she arrived at the crime scene, she was told she didn’t want to see her daughter in the condition she was in.

“And I knew she was gone,” Geralds said. “She was gone.”

Geralds remembered her daughter as a responsible woman who had worked at her job for 10 years. Foreman’s 6-year-old daughter will likely live with her now. Geralds said her daughter had been shot in a previous incident near 79th Street and King Drive.

“I didn’t get to talk to her today,” Geralds said. “I sent her a text and wished her a happy birthday.”

One of her cousins, who asked not to be named, said she was with Foreman earlier in the day.

“She was a great person,” she said. “We were just saying earlier, we were afraid of these streets.”