20-Year-Old Model Killed While Visiting Grandparents In Englewood
By Kate Shepherd in News on Nov 3, 2015 9:41PM
Matt Ferguson via Instagram
Just hours after a 9-year-old boy was murdered on the South Side Monday, tragedy struck again when 20-year-old model Kaylyn Pryor was shot and killed while visiting her grandparents in Englewood.
Pryor, who was not the intended target of the shooting, was standing outside around 6:20 p.m. in the 7300 block of South May with a 15-year-old boy when someone in a passing vehicle shot her in the armpit and the teen in the groin, according to the Sun-Times' Homicide Watch. She was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The boy is in critical condition.
The model won Mario Tricoci's 2015 Make Me a Model contest and had just signed a contract with Factor Women Model Management, the agency said in a Facebook post. Just last month the Evanston resident, who also worked at the Bears' Soldier Field ProShop, was featured as someone to watch by the Sun-Times' Splash Magazine.
She was leaving her grandparents' house and walking to the bus stop to head back to Evanston when she was shot, her father told NBC. The teenage boy accompanying her was not a relative or close friend but a boy she knew from the neighborhood. It's not yet clear if he had gang ties or was the intended target.
The death has stunned Pryor's friends and colleagues. The modeling contest's sponsor, Mario Tricoci Hair Salons & Day Spas, released a statement about her tragic death:
"We are saddened and broken-hearted to learn of the tragic passing of Kaylyn Pryor. Our hearts and prayers go out to her family. This touches every one of us who knew and worked with her. Kaylyn will be remembered for her kind and generous spirit. She truly was beautiful inside and out."
Factor remembered Pryor on their social media accounts: