Family Members of Woman Stabbed on Red Line Said They Found Out Through Gruesome Facebook Images

25-year-old Jessica Hampton was stabbed to death on a CTA train Thursday afternoon in broad daylight

After a woman was stabbed to death on a Chicago Transit Authority train in broad daylight on Thursday, family members of the victim said they found out about the murder of their loved one through gruesome images posted on Facebook.

"We're asking you please, please stop sharing it," crisis responder Dawn Valenti said in a news conference. "Please. Take it down. Please!"

The victim was identified Friday as 25-year-old Jessica Hampton, of the 6600 block of South Laflin in West Englewood. She was riding a southbound Red Line train as it approached 47th Street just after 12:30 p.m. when police say a man pulled out a knife and began stabbing her. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

Family and friends expressed outrage after images and videos of the mother were posted, then shared hundreds of times online.

"I just want everything that's on social media to just stop," sister Loreal Hampton said.

Loreal joined crisis responders Friday to call for the posts and videos taken after the crime to be immediately removed.

"Please stop it. It's very hurtful. This family was watching that video yesterday. They were looking at pictures on Facebook that people were spreading, not knowing until 9 o'clock last night that that in fact was their loved one that they were looking at. And it's very hurtful," Valenti added.

Loreal described Jessica as a devoted mother of a 6-year-old girl, saying she was in the process of getting her life back together. A Facebook page for Hampton shows she listed herself as engaged and worked in cosmetology.

"My sister was a beautiful, gifted young lady," Loreal said. "She did not deserve to go the way she did."

Police said the suspect was an acquaintance of Jessica's, after saying Thursday that they believed him to be her boyfriend, and that the couple had been arguing about a child before she was stabbed. But family members said they were unfamiliar with who he was, and why he allegedly killed Jessica.

"He don't deserve life. He don't deserve to be on this Earth," Loreal said.

One passenger on the train, Andrea Patterson, told NBC 5 she was seated near the two when the argument broke out.

“He asked the young lady a question, she said no and he got up and started stabbing her,” Patterson said. “She fell to the floor and then he slit her neck.”

Panicked passengers recall watching her murder frozen in horror, many of whom called 911.

“A couple of gentlemen were trying to help her but he still had a knife in his hand so nobody wanted to run up,” Patterson said.

A Chicago Police officer immediately took the suspect into custody yesterday afternoon, but charges have not yet been filed.

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