NEAR WEST SIDE — Shamiya Adams was with friends at a sleepover excited to enjoy a Church picnic when she was fatally shot Friday night, her pastor said Sunday at a special service held in memory of the slain 11-year-old girl.
Rev. George Daniels gave a special blessing Sunday at the First Baptist Congregational Church, 1613 W. Washington Blvd., where Adams was an active member. Daniels called about 10 of Adams' friends, some who were present at the shooting Friday night, to the front of the church and asked the entire community to help bless them after the tragedy.
Most of the children were in tears as the church embraced them.
"It's one thing to be standing on the porch. They should be able to go anywhere in the neighborhood, but when you go in your personal home and you're killed in your house, how can that be?" Daniels said before the service Sunday.
Josh McGhee describes the service and how the community is trying to pull together:
"When you go into your own home and your children are not safe, that's a bad nightmare. It's despicable. I don't think you can have words or phrases to talk about how horrific it is," he said.
Adams was in a home in the 3900 block of West Gladys Avenue in Garfield Park around 9:35 p.m. Friday when a wayward bullet entered the home striking her in the head. She was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where she later died, police said.
According to reports, she was with friends eating S'mores and pretending to be around a campfire when she was shot.
"She came over to spend the night in preparation for the church picnic," Daniels told the congregation Sunday. "It's evil. It's despicable."
Adams loved being in the church and would often put in her two cents about the food choices after the service, Daniels said.
"Pastor, why do we have to eat bagels? I don't like bagels," Daniels remembered her asking during the service Sunday.
Daniels said the church needed to come together as a community to stop the area's violence.
"Children should have hope. They should have dreams. They should be able to pursue their career paths, but when we babies are killed — it's bad enough gang bangers be shooting up each other — but when our babies are being killed, it's something horrific about that," Daniels said.
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