CHICAGO — Kierra Moore was a standout basketball player at Michele Clark Magnet High School, and a student her teachers adored.
“She was fiercely independent. She had her own mind very early, she was not a follower by any means,” former teacher Tara Stamps said.
Moore was a twin, inseparable from her sister. The two were together Thursday night when Kierra was shot to death, just two days before her 17th birthday.
“Everything about them is different, down to how they dress. But they were as connected as you hear twins to be,” Stamps said.
Police said around 11:30 p.m. that night, Kierra was standing with a group of people on the sidewalk near South Albany Avenue and West Polk Street on the West Side when an occupant inside a black car began shooting.
Kierra was hit multiple times and later died at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Her basketball coach since preschool said that only hours before the shooting, she got a call about Kierra from a college coach.
“I didn’t even get a chance to tell her. He called me Thursday around 6:30 that evening,” coach Pat Wade said.
It was a goal she had worked towards for years.
“She gave the court 110 percent. She never gave up on the court, she never gave up on the school books, she brought a smile to everybody. Call somebody man, call your loved one, your cousin, your brother, your sister. Call them and text them and tell them you love them because life is short,” brother Jaden Knox said.