WEST PULLMAN — Donna Parra had just put her three grandkids to bed, and was about to doze off herself, when gunshots jolted her awake Thursday night.
“I thought it was out under the window," said the 56-year-old grandmother, who lives with her daughter and grandchildren in a second-story apartment in the 300 block of East Kensington Avenue.
"Then I heard, like four or five guys run up" the stairs in the hallway, Parra said. "'Get that motherf---er. Get him.' Boom. Boom. Different guns. Shooting in the hall. And then I just froze."
After Parra heard the men run back downstairs and into the street, she slowly tried to open her front door. Something was blocking it.
“I saw a pool of blood," she said, "and I just closed it."
Eduardo Jamarillo, a 23-year-old from the 11700 block of South Front Avenue, had been fatally shot in the head outside Parra's apartment about 8:35 p.m. Thursday, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at the morgue at 1:35 a.m. Friday.
Police didn't offer many details about the crime Friday morning, but Officer Ron Gaines, a Chicago Police Department spokesman, said Jamarillo had gang ties. Detectives said they believe the shooting was gang-related.
Parra, who lived in Pullman most of her life, said she had known Jamarillo for years. He went to school with her daughter.
“He was a working boy with a family," Parra said. “He was a good kid. He wasn’t a gangbanger. He just lost his brother eight months ago in Pullman.”
Parra said she wasn't sure why anyone would attack Jamarillo. She said she suspects he ran into her building for shelter. In the 2½ years she has lived in the apartment, Parra said, she never witnessed any shootings or violence.
On Friday morning, pools of blood still filled Parra's hallway. A packet of blood-soaked cigarettes lay on the floor. And three distinct bullet holes in a northern wall sent bits of drywall crumbling to the ground.
"It's a good thing [the wall here] is thick," Parra said, pointing to the bullet holes. "The kids were in the room there [behind the bullet holes], and the bullet stopped right there. The police took it out of the wall."
As of Friday morning, no one was in custody.
