A young, pregnant woman was shot and killed as she attempted to rob someone in Chicago yesterday (March 6). Family and friends identified the victim as 21-year-old Genesis Escobar.
According to CBS Chicago, police said the incident happened around 1 p.m. local time. Escobar reportedly saw people sitting in a car when she entered their vehicle near the 5200 block of West Montana Street at Laramie Avenue and tried to rob them. The passengers, luckily, were able to defend themselves and thwart her plans, but, unfortunately, the pregnant woman and her unborn child did not survive. Officials stated that once the expecting mother got in the car in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood, she received gunshot wounds to her shoulder, back and hand.
She was then taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and pronounced dead. Iris Alvarez told CBS Chicago that Escobar reached out to her family just before the shooting occurred. “My heart is broken in pieces. She was also seven months pregnant with a baby girl,” Alvarez shared. She continued, “She texted my daughter and told my daughter: ‘Please help me! I’m in trouble!’ But my daughter was sleeping.” The grieving family friend revealed that moments later, she and her daughter heard several loud gunshots.
The woman said she and her child were shaken up by the gunfire and checked to see what was going on. They “looked out the window and [saw] the vehicle. Someone opened the driver door, walked around the vehicle, pulled the body out and drove off,” she told the news station. Alvarez’s daughter, who was not named in the story, ran downstairs to assist her friend and then hurried to get her to safety. “When we got to the hospital, unfortunately, the baby was not able to be saved — and she passed away as well,” the mother added. Police are still investigating the crime and at this time, no suspects have been arrested.