A 15-year-old girl who was one of seven people shot last month in a spree that spanned from Chicago to Evanston has died.
Damia Smith was pronounced dead just before 4 p.m. Tuesday at Comer Children’s Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
She is the fifth person to be killed in the Jan. 9 shooting rampage Chicago police say was carried out by Jason Nightengale.
The news of her death comes on the same night that 911 calls from that fateful January evening were released by authorities.
The calls captured the moment that Nightengale opened fire in a CVS location near the border of Chicago and Evanston. After leaving that store, he then moved across the street, where he shot 61-year-old Marta Torres. She later died from her injuries.
Nightengale then fled from the restaurant and was running toward a Dollar General when he was shot by Evanston police officers.
He was pronounced dead at an area hospital a short time later.
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That day, Smith was riding in a vehicle with her mother about 4 p.m. in the 10300 block of South Halsted Street when she was shot in the head, officials said. Nightengale is believed to be responsible for the shooting.
Less than two hours later, Nightengale’s rampage ended when he was killed in a shootout with Evanston police officers outside an IHOP, where he shot a woman who he had taken hostage.
Police say Nightengale shot seven people in Chicago and Evanston before he was killed. Four of those people — Aisha Nevvell, 46, Anthony Faulkner, 20, Yiran Fan, 30, and 61-year-old Marta Torres — died, in addition to Smith. Two other people were critically wounded.
Nightengale posted dozens of videos online in the days leading up to the shootings, flashing guns and ranting about Satan. One relative, Annette Nightengale, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “He was fighting some demons. He had some problems.”
