Two mothers were working to end gun violence in Chicago. Then they were shot to death

Two women who worked with a group called Mothers Against Senseless Killings to try to prevent gun violence in their Side Chicago neighborhood were killed by bullets that police do not believe were aimed at them in one corner where they would send food and bring children to play.

The gunfire Friday night was replaced by a man in charge of a Chicago street gang and was recently released from prison, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Guglielmi, 58, shot in the arm and whose name has not been released, is not cooperating with police, Guglielmi said.

"We have no information to suggest the intended targets," he said on Tuesday adding that police are still looking for a leader in the case. No one was arrested.
The deaths of 26-year-old Chantell Grant and 35-year-old Andrea Stoudemire in the Englewood suburb were a grim reminder of the kind of violence that led them to join the mothers against Senseless Killings. An anti-violence group was launched five years ago following the murder of another young mother in one corner.


"That's why we're here seven days a week ... trying to create a safe place where people can learn to be neighbors and not kill each other," said the group's founder, Tamar Manasseh.

He said he was not prepared to accept the suggestion that Grant, a mother of four, and Stoudemire, who had three children, were at a different time at a disadvantage.