Woman Fatally Shot By Stray Bullet While On The Phone With Her Family
By Mae Rice in News on Feb 10, 2016 10:42PM
A woman was on the phone with her family when she was fatally shot in the head by a stray bullet on Sunday evening, according to the Tribune.
Aaren O’Connor, 25, was in the Heart of Chicago area talking on the phone with her father in San Diego when she was shot around 7:30 p.m., according to police.
When she was shot, the call cut out, but father, David O’Connor, eventually got her on the line, the Tribune reports.
“She was having trouble speaking,” he told the Tribune. “She didn’t know where she was. She kept saying her head hurts, her head hurts. I thought maybe she was having a stroke or something.”
Soon after, O’Connor’s roommate found O’Connor, fatally injured but still alive, in O’Connor’s car.
O’Connor was taken to Stroger Hospital, where on Sunday evening, doctors declared her brain dead, according to the Tribune. O’Connor was kept on life support long enough to donate her organs.
Police have no one in custody for the shooting.
Since O'Connor's death, her coworkers have set up a GoFundMe where visitors can donate in O'Connor's name to help at-risk Chicago students study abroad, as O'Connor did.
The fund also aims, longer-term, to help at-risk youth "receive the caring and resources they need to choose a non-violent path and open their hearts to others.
O’Connor’s father is helping to raise money for the fund, which as of today has raised just shy of $30,000.
“People need to know what’s going on and what kind of loss is taking place here,” her father told the Tribune. “I want her name and her voice to be the impetus for bringing all this violence to an end."