A woman who was driving a minivan with her 4 children inside was critically hit by a stray bullet during suspected gang-related crossfire in Dolton, Chicago, on Aug. 21.
According to police, Marshia Bowman, 40, was driving at around 7:30 p.m. with four of her children after picking them up from daycare when someone in another vehicle opened fire into her car. After she was hit, the car lost control and veered off the road, crashing into a tree near a school, reported WGN.
None of the children were injured. Bowman had multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead on Aug. 23.
Three hours after the shooting, a SWAT team raided a home near the scene of the shooting using flashbang grenades, but didn’t find anything significant.
A Dolton trustee told Chicago CBS that resident had called saying he or she saw a man with a gun running away from the scene.
The neighbors saw the children running out the car screaming for help.
“It’s very unfortunate. It’s very unfortunate,” said her friend Kimberly Judkins.
“Disbelief. It’s just speechless right now,” Judkins said. “It’s just so unfortunate that that had to happen to her under the circumstances like that.”
Judkins worked with Bowman at a daycare center near the scene.
“That’s the sad part about it because they’re young,” Judkins said. “Her oldest is in college now, too. It’s just unfortunate they had to see that trauma.”
“Those babies are going to go through some trauma, which they are going through trauma now, and if this happens to turn for the worse, they’re going to be going through the worst trauma of their life,” said community activist and Dolton Village Trustee Andrew Holmes.
Leneaus Bowman, her husband, released a statement saying, “As a family, words could never express how hurt we are that our beloved wife, mother, sister, Aunt, and friend is gone. We would like to thank the residents of Cook County for their outpouring of support, well wishes, and prayers. In as much as this is a public tragedy, we asked that our family be allowed the privacy to mourn in peace.”
“I was saddened, I was hurt,” said Leneaus, “I was frightened. I don’t want to lose my wife.”
“After the gunshot, everything moved pretty fast, children turned into…one of my daughters or both of them had to get the other kids out of the car, so I had little people thinking like grown people real quick,” he said.
“I would hope that someone, they have somebody to talk to them to urge them to do the right thing and turn themselves in,” said Leneaus. “I think about the shootings that have been happening. There’s a lot of angry people out here and I don’t know why.”
“She was loving,” said Judette Wilson, who worked with her at Kiddy Kulture Daycare in Harvey, reported WGN. “She loved her kids she taught her kids and they loved her. It’s just unbelievable. I don’t have the words to express how I feel right now. I’m just broken-hearted.” No one has been detained and the police are still investigating.
Her husband established a GoFundMe page to help with their kids.
“My Wife was gunned down while driving home with my kids on 8/21/19 in Dolton IL. She leaves behind me a loving husband and 8 kids. This fund will help allow me to raise our kids the best way I know how. Any and all donations would be greatly appreciated,” reads the statement in the GoFundMe page.
