Chicago is mourning another baby this week, a seven-year-old named Eddimar Hernandez. The little girl was was walking with her 16-year-old sister on South Cottage Grove Avenue around 11:55 Saturday morning when a woman the girls did not know followed them and stabbed the little one multiple times in the back.
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According to ABC7, it happened in broad daylight, on a sidewalk in a shopping district in the Chatham neighborhood, the kind of block where folks are out running errands and living their lives.
Eddimar was rushed to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Security video from a nearby business shows the whole heartbreaking picture. The footage appears to show the child walking hand-in-hand with an older girl just before the attack. Bystanders who saw the stabbing grabbed the attacker and held her until police arrived. Police said the woman was hurt during the scuffle. Still, no amount of courage on the block could undo what had already been done.
Cops say the suspect is 48-year-old Shavon Gayden, and she’s now charged with first-degree murder. Police describe the attack as unprovoked. ABC7 reports Gayden allegedly had a run-in with staff at a nearby wireless store before the stabbing. Investigators haven’t publicly given a motive, so anybody claiming to know exactly why this happened is guessing.
Gayden is still hospitalized, and while a detention hearing was set for Monday, a full hearing will come later.
CWB Chicago reports that Gayden pleaded guilty in November 2024 to aggravated battery of a CTA bus driver and got two years of probation, then was arrested again the next month on misdemeanor battery and assault charges, which led to a probation violation. The outlet also reports a felony warrant had been sitting active in the police database for more than 18 months when she was taken into custody Saturday. Court records also point to an attack on two shelter workers.
Gayden’s own mother has now spoken up. She told ABC7 she believes years of effort to get her daughter mental health treatment went unanswered, and she apologized to Eddimar’s family, saying she was “so sorry for that family.”
On Sunday, the family went back to the spot where Eddimar was attacked, and neighbors and community leaders came out to hold them up. Loved ones remembered her as a happy girl who loved drawing, playing with her siblings, and waiting by the window for her parents to come home.
Eddimar should be in a classroom this week with a pencil in her hand and a drawing for somebody’s refrigerator. Instead, her family is planning goodbyes. Keep them in your prayers, and if you’re in a position to help, support the family however you can.