Chantell Grant and Andrea Stoudemire
Chicago, IL — Chantell Grant and her friend Andrea Stoudemire, two mothers who were active members of a group called Mothers Against Senseless Killings (MASK), have died after being shot multiple times on a South Side Chicago block where their group gathers to help end gun violence and try to create a safer space for the community.
On July 26, around 10 p.m., Grant and Stoudemire were walking on the sidewalk going to a store to get food for themselves and their children when multiple gunshots came from inside a blue SUV. Both women were shot several times in the chest. They were taken to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
According to police, they don’t think the two women were the intended targets. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said a 58-year old man, who was shot in the arm in the shooting, was believed to be the target. The man, whose name hasn’t been released, is affiliated with a Chicago street gang and recently got out of prison.
“We have no information to suggest they were the intended targets,” Guglielmi said, adding that police are still investigating. No arrests have yet been made.
The death of Grant, who is 26-years old and had four children wherein the youngest just turned 1-year old, and Stoudemire, a 36-year old mother of three, has further sparked outrage against gun violence in Chicago.
“For mothers to be killed in a place where mothers go to seek safety and sisterhood, I take that as a personal threat,” Tamar Manasseh, founder of MASK, said at a press conference. “Because when you come for one of us, you better believe they came for all of us.”
The group has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise $5,000 as a reward for information leading to the capture of the suspects for the two women’s death. It has so far raised over $20,000 within 2 days.
“The murder of a woman brought us to our corner on 75th & Stewart so there’s no way we’re going to let the murder of more moms drive us away,” the fundraising page says. “We deserve to live without fear and the young women, Chantel Grant and Andrea Stoudemire who were torn from their children families tonight, deserve justice.”