SOUTH CHICAGO— Sakinah Reed and Donta Parker were inseparable — so much so that friends jokingly called them siblings.
"They were close, like brother and sister. They grew up in the same apartment building," Niayla Coleman, a neighbor and former classmate of Sakinah's, said. "This was shock to everyone in the neighborhood. Everyone knew Sakinah and Donta."
Sakinah, 17, and Donta, 16, were killed Tuesday afternoon after they and another teen were shot while standing on the corner in the 7600 block of South Dorchester Avenue in South Shore.
Niayla, who went to elementary school at James N. Thorp with Sakinah, found out about her death through Facebook. She said the news did not hit her until she heard Sakinah's brother yelling and crying in front of his home last night.
"He was outside crying and he woke me up," Niayla said. "I saw people talking about [it] and I put two and two together."
Britia Lacey, a friend and neighbor, said the shooting came as a surprise: "[Sakinah] wasn't the type of person that got in to it with a lot of people," Lacey said. "She was mainly with her brothers if you saw her outside."
Sakinah loved sports and joking around with friends, Britia said.
"She liked to play basketball. She was a real silly person. A class clown," she said. "When people were angry, she would make them laugh."
According to Sakinah's Facebook page, she was a member of Phillips High School's basketball team until she transferred to Sullivan House High School, a school known for giving wayward students a second chance at a high school diploma.
Sakinah, who had only been at Sullivan House since November, was described as a "nice girl who made everyone laugh," said one staff member who declined to be named. She was set to try out for the school's basketball team, he said.
No arrests have been made in the shooting, according to Officer Michelle Tannehill, a Chicago Police spokeswoman.
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