A 14-year old north suburban Highwood girl was shot to death early Sunday, according to Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller.
Adriana Avila died of a single gunshot wound to the chest in the 1400 block of Victoria Street, Keller said. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:38 a.m.
Avila was a freshman at Highland Park High School, according to her mother, Monica Jacobo. She said her daughter had left home around 9 p.m. Saturday. She apparently went to a party in North Chicago without permission, Jacobo said.
"I don't know why she was there or how she got there," Jacobo said.
She believed her daughter was the only fatality but thought two other individuals were also shot.
"The kids ran out and they said they heard gunshots," said one Victoria Street neighbor. "There was about six of them and when I came out, the police and everything was out there."
North Chicago Police Department referred all inquiries about the shooting to the Lake County Major Crime Task Force. The task force does not give information to the media.
Jacobo said police had not told her the identity of the shooter or details about the incident.
"She has no way of getting there. She's 14; she can't drive. Somebody must have taken her there [but] nobody would tell us anything," her sister, Denisse Avila, said Monday through tears.
However, authorities did tell the family it was "very quick," she said.
Avila was an honor roll student who never missed class or homework, Jacobo said.
"We are still trying to figure out what happened. They killed her -- she was just a kid," Jacobo said.
