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'Don't Let Me Die,' Said 15-Year-Old Girl Killed on South Side

By  Geoff Ziezulewicz and Darryl Holliday | November 27, 2012 7:12am | Updated on November 27, 2012 5:11pm

CHICAGO — The 15-year-old girl who was shot to death while standing with friends in a South Side back yard Monday night begged those that she was with to save her after a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets at the group.

“Save me. Don’t let me die,” said Porshe Foster, of Auburn Gresham, after she collapsed, according to a witness.

Foster, who sang in her church's choir and was studying architecture, was hanging out with friends at a home in the 6900 block of South Campbell Avenue when she was fatally shot about 9:20 p.m.

According to friend and witness Randy Washington, 18, the group grew worried when a red coupe with tinted windows drove past the yard four or five times.

As they hurried into the house, a man with dreadlocks wearing all black and a hood got out of the car and unleashed a hail of about 20 shots, at least one of which struck Foster in the back.

“It’s hard to deal with because she’s innocent,” said Washington, adding that the shots were meant for him and a 16-year-old boy who lived in the house. “It was crazy. The bullet wasn’t meant for her.”

Once inside the home, a wounded Foster ran up a short staircase, hit her head on the kitchen door frame, and fell to the floor, said witness Keith Terrell, 23, who lives in the house.

Terrell said he turned Foster over on her side, as he was instructed to do by the 911 responder over the phone and could see the bullet hole in her gray sweater.

“There was blood coming from her back,” Terrell said. “She started shaking.”

The bloodshed left Terrell, an auto technology student at Kennedy-King College, shaken.

“We hear gunshots up here everyday," he said. "I never been through nothing like this a day in my life."

Foster, a student at ACE Tech Charter HS, was rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center where she died, according to the Cook County medical examiners office.

Her heartbroken mom Bonita Foster said Tuesday that her daughter was at a sleepover with her best friend and planning to go to school with her the next day.

"She was my baby," she said. "She was a good girl, a good student. She didn't deserve this."

The mom said her daughter, the youngest of seven siblings, played volleyball and basketball at school and sang in the choir at St. Mark Church of God in Christ. She recently became interested in architecture and loved the arts.

"She was always busy doing something and always kept good company," family friend Chris McKelvin, 44, said Tuesday.

"It's a tragedy. I will miss that beautiful smile of hers."

Craig Wilson, 17, a senior at ACE, also said Foster was “always happy” and friendly.

“You couldn't be quiet around her,” he said. “She would make you want to talk."

No suspects were in custody as of Tuesday morning and no other injuries were reported.