Woman charged with first-degree murder in fatal stabbing of 7-year-old girl in Chicago

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A woman has been charged with murder for allegedly stabbing to death a 7-year-old girl who was walking along a sidewalk in a Chicago neighborhood, police said.

Shavon Gayden, 48, was charged with one felony count of first-degree murder in connection with the death, Chicago police said in a statement Sunday.

Police said the girl was walking in the Chatham neighborhood Saturday morning when a woman carrying an unspecified sharp object approached her and stabbed her multiple times in the back. Bystanders chased after the woman and detained her, police said. Television networks showed a commercial strip lined with a restaurant, a nail salon and a market cordoned off by police tape afterward.

Gayden, who is from Chicago, was initially scheduled to appear for a hearing Monday morning but was hospitalized and was not going to appear, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said in an email. Her injuries were not considered life-threatening.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the child as Edi Mari Hernandez Chacon. She was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital.

A security photo from a nearby business showed the girl walking hand in hand with an older female when she was attacked, WLS-TV reported.

It was not immediately clear if there was any relationship between the attacker and the girl. Police have not commented on a possible motive for the stabbing and declined Sunday to provide further details.

Attempts to reach members of Gayden’s family by phone were unsuccessful. Matthew Hendrickson, press secretary for the Cook County Public Defender, said that the office was assigned to Gayden at a hearing Monday but declined to comment further.

In a GoFundMe post to raise funds for a funeral, the girl’s uncle, Richard Hernandez Chacon, wrote that Edi Mari’s “passing leaves an indescribable void and profound grief in all of us who loved her.”

Messages left with Hernandez Chacon and another person believed to be a family member were not immediately returned.

芝加哥论坛报/TNS/Getty Images

警方称，一名女子被控谋杀，她涉嫌在芝加哥一处街区的人行道上刺死了一名7岁女童。

芝加哥警方周日发表声明称，48 岁的沙文·盖登因与这起死亡事件有关而被控一级谋杀重罪。

警方称，周六上午，这名女孩在查塔姆社区行走时，一名女子手持不明尖锐物品靠近她，并多次刺伤她的背部。警方表示，旁观者追赶并制服了该女子。事后，电视台画面显示，包括一家餐厅、一家美甲店和一家超市在内的商业街被警戒线封锁。

库克县州检察官办公室在一封电子邮件中表示，来自芝加哥的盖登原定于周一上午出庭，但她因住院治疗而无法出庭。她的伤势并无生命危险。

库克县法医办公室确认死者为埃迪·玛丽·埃尔南德斯·查孔。她在科默儿童医院被宣布死亡。

据 WLS-TV 报道，附近一家商店的监控照片显示，这名女孩在遭到袭击时正与一名年长的女性手牵手行走。

目前尚不清楚袭击者和女孩之间是否存在任何关系。警方尚未就可能的作案动机发表评论，并于周日拒绝提供更多细节。

记者多次尝试通过电话联系盖登的家人，但均未成功。库克县公共辩护律师办公室新闻秘书马修·亨德里克森表示，周一的听证会上，该办公室被指派负责盖登的案件，但他拒绝进一步置评。

在为葬礼筹款的 GoFundMe 帖子中，女孩的叔叔 Richard Hernandez Chacon 写道，Edi Mari 的“离世在我们所有爱她的人心中留下了难以言喻的空缺和深深的悲痛”。

记者给埃尔南德斯·查孔以及另一位据信是其家人的人留言，但均未立即得到回复。