CHICAGO — A 13-year-old girl and her 35-year-old mother have been arrested and charged in the stabbing death of 16-year-old De'Kayla Dansberry on Saturday night in Washington Park, according to police and media reports.
The 13-year-old girl has been charged with first degree murder after she allegedly stabbed De'Kayla once in the chest during a fight near an apartment complex in the South Side neighborhood, police said.
The girl was given the knife by her mother, 35-year-old Tamika Gayden, who has also been charged with first degree murder in the case, according to police and media reports.
Gayden, who lives in the Parkway Gardens complex where the fight took place, was also charged with one felony count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The girl charged in the crime has not been named because she is a juvenile, per police procedure.
RELATED: TEEN STABBED TO DEATH 'HAD EVERYTHING GOING FOR HER'
The girls were fighting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Parkway Gardens complex in the 6400 block of South King Drive, according to police. The incident turned from a verbal fight into a physical altercation, and De'Kayla was stabbed once in the chest and died later at Stroger Hospital, police said.
After the incident, the 13-year-old girl was seen washing off the murder weapon and allegedly told her mother, "I killed her," referring to De'Kayla, at a court hearing, according to the Sun-Times.
The girl who stabbed De'Kayla turned herself in to police Monday afternoon, police said in a news release. She appeared in juvenile court Tuesday and was ordered to be held in police custody pending a trial, according to the Sun-Times. She reportedly will plead not guilty.
Friends of the Johnson College Prep student said De'Kayla was an outgoing and loyal friend. She was on the track team and had enrolled in mentorship programs like Swag the Runway. Police said De'Kayla was 15 years old, while the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said she was 16.
It was not like her to get in fights, since she had "everything going for her," said a friend, Dennis Mapp.
"She was cute, she was on the track team, had trophies," Mapp said at a memorial for the girl. "It was jealousy," he said of the fight that cost De'Kayla her life.
Detectives had questioned people in the stabbing earlier this week, but they were released without charges, Armezaga said Monday.
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