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Father of Slain Pregnant Woman: 'Chicago is a Hateful City With No Heart'

By Josh McGhee | July 9, 2014 7:17am | Updated on July 9, 2014 2:09pm
 Jasmine Curry, 25, was fatally shot on the Dan Ryan Expressway Wednesday morning.
Fatal Shooting on the Dan Ryan
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CHICAGO — Pierre Curry woke up Wednesday at 4 a.m. to a call telling him his pregnant daughter had been shot to death on the Dan Ryan Expy.

His first reaction: "No. Not again."

The early morning shooting of Jasmine Curry came almost a year after his 17-year-old son Pierce Curry was shot to death only blocks away in South Deering. That shooting happened a day after the teen registered for his senior year of high school and applied to get his driver's permit.

"What am I going to tell my grandkids?" Pierre Curry asked Wednesday, standing near Wentworth Avenue and 60th Place overlooking the expressway. The body of his 25-year-old daughter — who has five children — was still inside a blue minivan below the overpass.

"Twenty-five years old," Curry said. "Still right there. ... I lost my last born and my first born."

Curry had recently learned that his slain daughter was six months pregnant.

State troopers responded to a shooting near the 55th Street exit of the Dan Ryan around 3:50 a.m. Wednesday. When troopers arrived, they discovered a 2005 Dodge Caravan on the shoulder of the southbound lanes of the expressway near 59th Street, police said.

Troopers found the driver fatally shot in the head and another woman in the passenger seat. Later, officers learned a man seated in the rear of the van had fled. State Police and the Chicago Police Department are working to find him.

Surveillance video was obtained from the scene, and police said they are looking for a silver Dodge Intrepid that the shooter was in. Police don't know the year or the license plate number of the car.

The passenger is cooperating with police and the investigation, officials said.

State Police shut down the southbound local lanes of the Dan Ryan after the shooting until about 11 a.m., causing long traffic delays.

Curry said he called his daughter by her middle name, Sade, after the British singer. She always put family first and was a caring mother to her five children, who range in age from 1 to 9, he said.

"She loved working and always kept a job. She didn't want no handouts," he said, adding she just started a second job to bring in extra money to support her kids.

Though police said a motive was unknown, Curry said he believes the shooting was linked to the murder of his teen son.

"He was murdered in some gang s---, and this right here is some gang crap," he said. "Chicago is a hateful city with no heart."

Jasmine was a "sweet beautiful daughter" who "always took care of me, taking me to the hospital" and "making sure I took my medicine," Curry said.

"She loved her daddy," he said, adding that he still called her "Da-Da."

"I'm gonna miss that sound."

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