A teenager from Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood was shot and killed Sunday after getting into an argument with a man in an alley, and now her family is calling for justice.
Treja Kelly, 18, was walking in the 900 block of West 52nd Street at approximately 9:30 p.m. Sunday night when a man emerged from an alley, according to Chicago police. After the two individuals became engaged in a verbal altercation, the man pulled out a gun and shot her three times.
She was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.
“I don’t know why this happened,” Kelly’s grandmother Judy Fields said. “I just want to hold my kids close to me.”
Fields is stricken with grief after the shooting, unsure of why someone would shoot and kill a teen who had just celebrated her 18th birthday.
“She was a straight-A student who went to school everyday,” she said. “She never got into any kind of serious trouble.”
Fields said that her granddaughter was heading home from the Fairplay Grocery Store at 47th and Halsted, where she worked.
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Recently, Kelly testified in the 2016 murder case of Fields’ grandson, who was shot and killed while walking his cousin home.
“At first she said she wasn’t going to do it,” her grandmother said. “Her mother convinced her that it was for Chris, so she went out and did it.”
Now as her family deals with another young life taken too soon, Fields is pleading with police to quickly bring her granddaughter’s killer to justice.
“He has to answer to the Lord for his sins,” she said. “Before he leaves this Earth, I hope he has to answer for it.”
Area Central detectives are investigating the shooting. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Chicago police. Tips can be left anonymously on a special police department website.
