Princess Jayma Bell was on her way to scoop up her 11-year-old brother from school Monday evening when two gunmen fatally shot her and an acquaintance, according to police.
Now, loved ones are begging neighbors to share any information that leads to the killer as they mourn their 19-year-old “loving sweetheart.”
Bell died Thursday, three days after the 5:40 p.m. attack in the 9600 block of South Green Street, in Bell’s Washington Heights neighborhood.
Her companion, a still-unidentified 18-year-old man from Chatham, was dead within an hour of the shooting while Bell was left clinging to life, suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.
“I called my daughter at 5:31 p.m. and said, ‘Go pick up your brother from school,’” said Bell’s mother, Denise Washington, 36. “She said, ‘OK.’”
“I know somebody got a video of what happened to my baby — I just need them to come forward,” Washington said. “They can even remain anonymous. Just come forward.”
A bullet hole can be seen in the window of a vehicle outside the family home of 19-year-old Princess Bell on the South Side on Friday. Bell died Thursday after she and an 18-year-old man were shot while sitting in the vehicle Monday evening in the 9600 block of South Green Street in Washington Heights.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Bell, a health care worker and aspiring nail technician, hopped behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Equinox with the 18-year-old acquaintance who took the front passenger seat to join her in picking up the boy, according to her family and a police report.
As they were still parked, two gunmen walked up behind them and opened fire more than two dozen times, leaving a gaping hole in a window of the SUV.
In the hail of gunfire, the man got out and began running away while Bell, shot once in the back of the head, remained with her feet in the SUV and the rest of her body on the grass outside, according to the report.
Bell was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition and survived until Thursday when she was pronounced dead at 3:19 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Bell’s companion collapsed in the street. He’d been shot multiple times and he was also taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., according to a police report and the medical examiner’s office.
About 26 shell casings were found on the scene, from two different caliber weapons, the report said.
Washington said her daughter was an innocent bystander, caught in the crossfire.
“I was immediately crying. My baby was hurt. That’s all I knew,” Washington said.
After the attack, Washington said she doesn’t feel safe, pointing out that Bell was close to home, and she pleaded for neighbors to come forward if they know anything.
“What’s the point of having Ring cameras if you don’t want to give up any video?” she said.
As Washington grieves, she remembers her daughter as “loving and a sweetheart” and also stubborn. “Just like me,” Washington said.
A music lover, Bell enjoyed listening to R&B music with her mother, who introduced her to some of her favorite artists such as Raphael Saadiq and Babyface.
One of Bell’s favorite places to go was the 31st Street Beach, where the family would sit, talk and “get our feet wet,” her mother said. She was a “beautiful and elegant young woman.”
Bell had a large family who cherished her, relatives said, with several younger brothers and sisters.
Bell’s cousin Jada Lee, from Roseland, said they often watched movies and cooked together, making dishes such as spicy noodles, pizza and chili dogs.
“She always had to have on her lip gloss before she did anything,” said Lee, 22. “She always had her purses.”
Family friend Denise Reed, 36, also from Roseland, said Bell was a “problem solver,” who always offered advice on relationships.
“This world shines a lot less because she’s gone,” Reed said. “She was a true light.”
Services were being planned.
No arrests have been announced.
