A 7-year-old girl was walking hand-in-hand with her older sister on a Chicago sidewalk when a woman allegedly came up behind her and stabbed her to death.
Edi Mari Hernandez Chacon was attacked shortly before noon Saturday on Cottage Grove Avenue in Chatham, where police say 48-year-old Shavon Gayden used a sharp object to stab the child multiple times in the back.
Bystanders chased Gayden after the attack and held her until officers arrived, turning a neighborhood sidewalk into a frantic crime scene before paramedics carried the little girl away.
Edi Mari was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital and later pronounced dead.
William Smith watched the chaos from inside his barbershop and told WGN 9 that people had already gathered around the child by the time he realized what had happened.
“I noticed there was a little girl laying on the ground. There was people standing over her,” Smith said.
Someone in the crowd then identified the fleeing woman.
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“I heard a young lady, or somebody say, ‘That’s the lady. She did it. She’s running,’” Smith recalled.
WGN 9 reported that several men ran after the suspect, including one who appeared to be carrying jumper cables.
“He whacked her with it. She fell, he whacked her again. Then they just started dropping the hammers on her,” Smith said.
Gayden was hurt during the confrontation with bystanders and later hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Chicago police said Sunday that Gayden had been charged with one count of first-degree murder.
Investigators have not publicly identified a motive or any relationship between Gayden and Edi Mari.
The early police account described the stabbing as “unprovoked,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Surveillance footage obtained by NBC Chicago showed witnesses running after the suspect before police got there.
A separate video shared to the Citizen app showed emergency responders placing Edi Mari on a stretcher and pushing her across the street toward an ambulance.
A scooter remained on the sidewalk after the child was taken away.
The shock of the killing followed Edi Mari’s family to the hospital, where WLS reported relatives cried and embraced for hours.
“That poor innocent baby. Chicago needs to wake up. We all need to wake up,” one woman who was in the area told WLS.
Denesta Freeman, who passed the scene, told the station that children were losing the chance to live safely.
“I never thought it would get to this point. These kids nowadays are not getting to live their lives because of what’s happening. Killing, shooting, it’s ridiculous,” Freeman said.
Gayden’s first court date was delayed because she remained hospitalized, a spokesperson for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said in an email.
She had been expected in court Monday, but a new hearing was set for Wednesday.
The Sun-Times reported that Gayden’s criminal history included accounts of other attacks that also appeared random.
In 2023, Gayden was charged with attacking a CTA bus driver and received two years of probation.
Court records reviewed by WLS showed she violated that probation in 2024 by assaulting two shelter workers, leading to court supervision.
After Gayden missed court in February 2025, an arrest warrant was issued. It remained unclear whether the warrant was ever carried out.
ABC7 spoke with Gayden’s mother, who requested anonymity and apologized to Edi Mari’s family while saying her daughter had struggled with mental health issues for years.
“I am so sorry. I am so sorry for that family. The little baby didn’t deserve it. My daughter was not in her right mind,” Gayden’s mother said.
Gayden’s mother said she had watched her daughter’s mental health decline for more than a decade and had tried repeatedly to get help.
“I’m just so upset, and I just feel like the system let me down, and the system let my daughter down, just because she was grown, and they told me that it wasn’t nothing that I could do,” she said.
Gayden’s mother also told ABC7 she had gone to court in the CTA bus driver case and shared her concerns with the public defender.
Edi Mari’s mother, Estefany Hernandez, collapsed to her knees during a Sunday vigil on the same South Side sidewalk where her daughter had been stabbed.
Through tears, she demanded that her daughter’s killing not be forgotten.
“My daughter’s death should not be left like this,” Hernandez told WLS. “There must be justice for my little girl. She wasn’t bothering anyone.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a social media statement that he was “heartbroken” by the killing.
“No family should ever have to experience the unimaginable pain of losing a child, and no child should ever have to fear for her life simply walking through her neighborhood,” Johnson said. “We are praying for them and for everyone impacted by this horrifying tragedy.”
Alderwoman Michelle Harris of Chicago’s 8th Ward also mourned the child while thanking the people who stepped in after the attack.
“My heart goes out to her family, friends, and everyone who is affected by this horrific incident,” Harris said. “No child should ever have to experience violence or fear while simply walking down the sidewalk.”
Harris said the bystanders’ response may have kept the violence from spreading.
“Their quick actions may have prevented further harm,” she said.
