ENGLEWOOD — It only took one shot to kill 19-year-old Jaynisha Scheffer under a viaduct on a quiet block of Englewood inhabited mostly by senior citizens, neighbors said.
Mary Jenkins, 37, was sitting with her father on the porch around 7 p.m. Monday night when she heard the loud sound of a gunshot come from under the viaduct on 69th Street between Bell Avenue and Hamilton Street.
"We just heard one 'pow' and never seen a car or bike ride past. Three girls ran [from under the viaduct], and she collapsed right under the bus stop," Jenkins said Tuesday morning, recalling the horror of the night before.
As the three young women ran away, Jenkins called 911. Before she could check on Scheffer, the Fire Department had arrived.
Jenkins, who said she has a nursing background, said she wasn't able to properly assess the damage, but when she saw the wound in Scheffer's back she knew it was from a bullet.
"I could just see the blood gushing from her back," Jenkins said. "It's sad. I'm just praying for our city."
Scheffer was taken in serious condition to Stroger Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Erica Lewis, 37, moved on the block with her 12-year-old twin boys and 5-year-old daughter in November.
She wasn't surprised by a shooting in Englewood, but for one to happen on her block — "a normally quiet block with a lot of senior citizens with not too much going on" — was particularly petrifying, she said.
"Shootings are kind of normal, sadly, and not really surprising. But right here is like ... really? It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, hopefully, because my kids are out here playing from this corner to the viaduct," Lewis said, pointing to the corner of 69th Place and Hoyne Avenue, just down the block from the shooting.
"There's fear mostly for my kids, not for my myself, growing up in this when you know what's going on. The shootings won't stop, though, they've been going on for a lifetime," she said.
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