Family members of a Chicago public school teacher who was fatally shot in gang crossfire have increased the reward for information in her slaying.
Betty Howard, 58, died last week in an exchange of gunfire between two groups of alleged gang members. Her family said Monday that they're offering a $7,000 reward thanks to donations from the community.
Howard's husband, Major Howard, said he misses his wife as a friend and a teacher :who cared for her students.''
Howard taught at Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep on the city's South Side. She also worked with special needs students and at a realty company. Family members say she was at that office May 29 when a bullet came through a wall and struck her in the head.
Howard's brother, a Chicago police officer, said the crime brings the street violence he sees almost daily even closer to home.
"I feel the pain. I know how other people feel now. We just go to the scene and do what we have to do as a police officer, but now it hitting home and it's such a terrible situation," Orlando Long said.
Tips can be made to Chicago police anonymously.
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- July 2013: Program Urges Crime Tips Via Text Message, Twitter
Two others were killed and at least eight others wounded in shootings throughout the city on Thursday.
