West Side religious leaders offer $10,000 reward for tips leading to conviction in woman’s death

Tracey A. Showers fit the achievements of several people into her one life. A dedicated church volunteer and mother of three, she also was a self-published author, a jewelry-maker and award-winning mentor who’d been invited to tour the White House.

That life ended last week.

Around 10 p.m. on Feb. 28, Showers, 55, was getting out of her car at her home in the 5500 block of West Le Moyne Street when a stray bullet struck her in her face. She was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood where she was pronounced dead.

No one is in custody, and the Chicago Police Department is still investigating.

A group of West Side religious leaders hope to help, offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in Showers’ death.

The Rev. Ira Acree, pastor at Greater St. John Bible Church and a member of the Leaders Network, announced the reward last week. Showers had been a parishioner at Acree’s church in Austin for more than 20 years.

“In a time where people do a lot of church-hopping and church shopping,” Acree said, “Tracey was a constant. She was committed to the ministry and to the people of our community.”

She volunteered at the church for years and helped it run safely during the height of COVID-19, when it reopened with capacity restrictions.

“One of the things I get emotional about is how she rose to the occasion during the global pandemic,” Acree said. “She risked her health to make sure our church doors were open.”

The longtime pastor said she provided masks, reminded people to maintain social distancing and sanitized surfaces when little was known about the virus.

She was a dedicated church volunteer the rest of the week, too, helping with donations of food and winter clothing around the city.

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To honor her service, Acree announced on Sunday that the church would institute an annual Tracey Showers Faithful Servant Award for a woman in the community known for acts of service.

Acree is still shaken by her death, and especially by the mundane circumstances in which it happened.

“This has really rattled the West Side,” he said. “You think it could’ve been me or one of my loved ones.”

Yolanda Wells, a director of one of the church’s ministries, met Showers through church service projects.

“She was very giving, very outgoing. She was a person who didn’t have a lot of material things, but she was always trying to give to other people,” Wells said.

As they became closer, Wells realized there was even more to Showers, calling her “an artistic soul.”

She made and sold jewelry, crocheted and self-published a book that led to at least one person recognizing her in public, Wells said. And for her work advocating for those dealing with food insecurity, she was invited to the White House last fall.

“That was her crowning achievement,” Wells said.

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Showers had been invited to attend a conference in Washington, D.C., on food insecurity after speaking at an event on the subject in the Midwest. That led to the White House tour, where she was photographed with the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama.

Showers became involved in advocating for those experiencing food insecurity after going to an Oak Park food pantry herself. Later, she signed up for nutrition classes at the pantry, Beyond Hunger, eventually joining its client advisory council, helping the pantry serve people better.

“She was very inspirational,” said Michele Zurakowski, the pantry’s CEO. “She changed the way that I see the world.”

Showers was also known for changing the lives of the young people around her, volunteering for College Mentoring Experience, an Austin-based program for students from sixth grade and on.

“She has a heart for the community, she has a heart for young people, she has a heart for serving,” said Bernard Lilly, founder of the mentoring group. “Whoever she comes in contact with, she just always wanted to help them become better.”

Lilly and Showers met at church, where Lilly hosted his mentoring program before expanding it citywide in 2014. Showers soon won the program’s outstanding mentor of the year award.

Lilly said Showers’ energy made the difference. People could tell she cared.

“I don’t know anybody that met her that didn’t love her,” Lilly said.

Survivors include her husband, Pernell Showers, and three children.

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.