Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was "heartbroken" after a 7-year-old girl was fatally stabbed while walking with her family on the city's South Side on Saturday. The child, identified as Edi Mari Hernandez Chacon by the Cook County Medical Examiner, was walking southbound in the 8600 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue at about 11:55 a.m. when she was approached by an adult woman who displayed a sharp object and stabbed her multiple times in the back, according to a statement emailed to Newsweek Sunday from the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Police said the girl was transported to Comer Children's Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Bystanders who witnessed the attack detained the suspect until officers arrived, according to police. When detained by bystanders, the suspect suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was later transported to a hospital. The woman remains in police custody.
The girl's cause of death was multiple stab wounds, and the manner was listed as homicide, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office told Newsweek in an email Sunday. The death of a young child in what police described as an apparently unprovoked attack has shocked local residents and prompted an outpouring of grief from city leaders. In a statement posted on X, Johnson said the killing was a tragedy no family should endure.
"I am heartbroken by the killing of a 7-year-old Chicago girl who was simply walking down the street with her family," he wrote. "No family should ever have to experience the unimaginable pain of losing a child, and no child should ever have to fear for her life simply walking through her neighborhood." Johnson said the city would continue supporting the victim's family and pursuing accountability in the case. According to ABC7 Chicago, security video from the area appeared to show the 7-year-old walking hand-in-hand with a woman moments before the attack.
Additional footage obtained by the station appeared to show bystanders rushing toward the scene and intervening to detain the suspect, who was not visible on camera at the time. ABC7 reported that witnesses and residents expressed shock and grief in the aftermath of the stabbing. "The poor baby had nothing to do with what was going on," one woman told the outlet.
Residents who spoke with the station said they were struggling to understand how such a young child became the victim of a fatal attack. "I just don't know what this world is coming to ... for a seven-year-old like that to be getting stabbed," resident Denesta Freeman told ABC7 Chicago. Another woman, who asked ABC7 not to show her face, said the tragedy felt personal because her own daughter is the same age as the victim.
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