Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Chicago police on Thursday were investigating the shooting death of a 31-year-old woman who was slain at the same spot as her 14-year-old son just days earlier.
Delisa Tucker, a mother of six, was shot in the chest Wednesday morning near Chicago's Wentworth Avenue while visiting the location where her 14-year-old son, Kevin Tinker Jr., was killed by gunfire on Sunday, WBBM-TV reported.
Family and friends said they are in shock over the deaths that happened just days apart. Tucker leaves behind five children between the ages of four and 15.
"We need justice for Delisa and Kevin," family friend Michelle Tharpe told the broadcaster. "That's all we want."
Delisa Tucker intended to light a candle at the site of her son's slaying in the early morning hours before being struck by gunfire herself, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
"It's just sad that this whole family, basically, to be killed over time," Pastor Donovan Price, who said he consoled Tucker at a vigil for her son Sunday night, told the newspaper. "I'm devastated."
Police haven't said if they suspect the shootings are connected and indicated no one has been taken into custody. Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan wouldn't say if Kevin Tinker, Jr. was specifically targeted but told the Sun-Times the eighth-grader was outside a home that had been targeted earlier.
Tinker's father, Kevin Tinker Sr., described his son as a "good kid" who played basketball and stayed home most of the time with his younger brothers and sisters. But he said that "some violence found him" when he was walking home from a friend's house.
Police said no witnesses to Delisa Tucker's slaying had yet been found.
The shootings occurred in the Roseland area of Chicago where police say murders have increased by 48% from last year and 94% from 2019. The area has seen 26 shooting deaths so far in 2021, outpacing last year, according to the Sun-Times.
Friends of the family have started a GoFundMe page to cover funeral expenses.