15-year-old girl wounded in Chicago-to-Evanston shooting spree dies; becomes 5th person killed

A 15-year-old girl who was one of seven people shot last month in a spree that spanned from Chicago to Evanston has died.

Damia Smith was pronounced dead just before 4 p.m. Tuesday at Comer Children’s Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

She is the fifth person to be killed in the Jan. 9 shooting rampage Chicago police say was carried out by Jason Nightengale.

That day, Smith was riding in a vehicle with her mother about 4 p.m. in the 10300 block of South Halsted Street when she was shot in the head, officials said. Nightengale is believed to be responsible for the shooting.

Less than two hours later, Nightengale’s rampage ended when he was killed in a shootout with Evanston police officers outside an IHOP, where he shot a woman who he had taken hostage.

Police say Nightengale shot seven people in Chicago and Evanston before he was killed. Four of those people — Aisha Nevvell, 46, Anthony Faulkner, 20, Yiran Fan, 30, and Marta Torres, 61 — died, in addition to Smith. Two other people were critically wounded.

Nightengale posted dozens of videos online in the days leading up to the shootings, flashing guns and ranting about Satan. One relative, Annette Nightengale, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “He was fighting some demons. He had some problems.”