Woman Charged After 7-Year-Old Girl Killed on Chicago Sidewalk

By Dana Whitfield. Oct 12, 2026

A Walk With Her Sister Ends in Violence

Seven-year-old Eddimar Hernandez was walking along a Chicago sidewalk with her older sister when authorities say a stranger attacked her, a public daytime killing that has led to a first-degree murder charge.

Chicago police said the attack happened late Saturday morning, October 3, near East 86th Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue in the Chatham area. Approved local reporting says Eddimar was walking hand in hand with her sister after they had gone to pay a phone bill when the encounter occurred.

Authorities said 48-year-old Shavon Gayden approached the child. NBC Chicago reported that prosecutors described Gayden first moving toward the older sister before Eddimar became the target. The article does not need the graphic mechanics of the attack to make the central fact clear: a seven-year-old child was fatally injured while walking down a neighborhood sidewalk.

Bystanders intervened and detained Gayden until police arrived, according to police and local reporting. Eddimar was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she died. The Cook County medical examiner publicly identified the child.

First-Degree Murder Charge Filed

Police charged Gayden with one felony count of first-degree murder. She was initially expected to appear in court Monday, but that appearance was delayed while she remained hospitalized with injuries described as non-life-threatening.

ABC7 Chicago reported Wednesday morning that Gayden was scheduled to face a judge at 11:30 a.m. after the earlier appearance was delayed. The murder charge remains an allegation, and the available reporting does not establish a motive or any prior relationship between Gayden and Eddimar.

That absence of a known connection is part of what makes the case difficult for the family and neighborhood to understand. Police have described the child and the defendant as strangers. The public record does not provide a factual basis for assigning a motive, and reports about the defendant’s personal history do not establish why Eddimar was attacked.

Surveillance footage captured parts of the sequence, and news reports said bystanders moved quickly after the attack. Their intervention led to Gayden’s detention at the scene before officers took her into custody.

A Child Remembered by Family and Neighbors

Family members and neighbors gathered after the killing to remember Eddimar. Her mother described her as a little girl who had done nothing to the woman accused in her death. The child’s identity has been publicly released by authorities and carried by major local outlets.

The family’s loss is not a procedural detail in the case. Eddimar had been walking with her sister during an ordinary daytime errand. Her sister survived the encounter, while Eddimar did not return home.

Because the victim was a child, the known facts require restraint. The case can be understood without repeating graphic injury details, speculating about the defendant’s mental state, or turning the child’s age into sensational language. What the current record supports is already stark: a seven-year-old was killed on a city sidewalk, bystanders intervened, and a woman now faces a first-degree murder charge.

Gayden’s case is moving into court as Eddimar’s family prepares to live with a loss that happened during a routine walk. The legal process will determine criminal responsibility; the child’s absence is already a fact her family and neighborhood cannot undo.

ABC7 reported that part of the incident was captured by a CTA bus camera and that the defendant’s first scheduled appearance was postponed because she remained hospitalized. By Wednesday, she was expected to appear before a judge for the first time. Those procedural details matter because they establish that the case is still at the beginning of the court process. They do not change the factual center of the story: Eddimar was walking with her sister on a public sidewalk, witnesses intervened, and prosecutors have filed a first-degree murder charge against the adult police arrested at the scene.

References: NBC Chicago | ABC7 Chicago