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| Natasha Howliet, 20, was gunned down while standing at a bus stop on the city's West Side. CBS |
Posted: Thursday, 08 October 2009 12:02PM
Young Mother Shot Dead Near Garfield Park
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CHICAGO (CBS) ― On her daughter's third birthday, a young mother was killed in a drive-by shooting on the West Side near Garfield Park.
As CBS 2's Ed Curran reports, the family of Natasha Howliet, 20, says she was the unintended victim of a drive-by shooting.
Howliet was standing at a bus stop at Madison Street and Homan Avenue, right under a Chicago Police surveillance camera. She was talking with friends when a red car pulled up and shots were fired around 8 p.m. Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, friends and relatives had a story all too familiar, of a young person who was the unintended victim of a drive by shooting.
"She had just gotten her certificate as a medical assistant, and she was looking for a job," said Howliet's cousin, Shenicka Sturghil.
A memorial grew in size through the morning, as friends, neighbors, even strangers stopped to talk, to mourn, to pray.
"Where is the justice, O Heavenly Father, when our brothers and sisters get gunned down on the streets in our neighborhood, O Heavenly Father, that are innocent victims of gun violence, O God," the Rev. Robin Hood invocated as he led a prayer circle near the crime scene.
Workers replaced the shattered glass in the bus shelter where Natasha was shot, but it will take a long time to mend the shattered lives.
Natasha Howliet's father, Mario Howliet, can't believe what's happened. It is a sudden and senseless loss.
"She's got three kids. What happened to her, it should have never happened," he said.
Howliet's MySpace page indicates she graduated West Town Academy, 2021 W. Fulton St., in 2008 after spending her first two years of high school at Clemente Community Academy, 1147 N. Western Ave.
She lists herself as a "proud parent" interested in basketball and cheerleading, who had worked at K-Mart.
This tragic also shooting happened on the same day as the breakfast meeting on youth violence in Chicago, attended by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Mayor Richard M. Daley.
But more importantly, it happened on the birthday of Natasha Howliet's 3-year-old daughter.
The family said so far, they have been told the police camera did not pick up the murder.
Harrison Area detectives are investigating, but nobody was in custody as of mid-morning Thursday.
CBS 2's Ed Curran and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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