Sept. 08--Twenty-year-old Shaquandra Ratliff was outspoken, trusting and hanging out with the wrong crowd when she was fatally shot during an outdoor party over the weekend, her family said.
"She was my best friend,'' said her 17-year-old sister Shakia Herron. "I feel like I lost a part of me. I'm very angry. I want to know who took my big sister away from me."
About 1:30 a.m. Sunday, a fight erupted during a party in the 6100 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue in the city's Woodlawn neighborhood where the one-year anniversary of the death of a gang member was being commemorated, according to police.
Shots rang out and Ratliff, who police said has no gang affiliation, was in an alley when she was hit in the head. She was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead about an hour later, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy Monday determined she died of a gunshot wound to the head and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the office.
The scene turned hectic just after the shooting. At one point, 20 or so mostly young men moved north on Cottage Grove while fighting as police tried to break up and disperse the group.
Ratliff, whose nickname was "Boobie or Boo-boo,'' had a 2-year-old son, was "very outspoken'' and loved watching movies with Herron who was babysitting her son the night of the attack, according to her family.
When she was born, her family lived in the Robert Taylor Homes, but she and her family moved when she was about 3 years old to the same area where the slaying took place. They made another move to the 6800 block of South Morgan Street, where they now reside, according to her mother, 43-year-old Claudia Ratliff.
Her sister and mother were not pleased with the crowd she was hanging out with that night.
"She loved them, but they didn't love her back,'' her mother said, adding that her daughter was headstrong about the people she wanted to spend time with.
"She was with people that were supposed to be her friends. But I don't think they were real friends. I think they were fake,'' her sister said, adding that "all of them knew everything that happened and somebody saw something,'' but no one was telling police.
The night of the killing, Herron got a call from one of her friends who told her about the shooting and she had to wake up her mother.
"She banged on my door and said, 'Momma, get up Boobie got shot,' '' the mother said. "I was motionless. I don't know how I made it over there on the scene. I don't know how I made it to Northwestern Hospital and I don't even know how I made it back home. I was in a blank state of mind.''
Her mother now hopes to raise her young grandson herself and possibly move the family to another state.
"My grandson is 2 but he knows something is wrong, it's eating me up,'' Claudia Ratliff said. "My plan is to raise my grandson and never let him forget his mom.''
According to her mother and court records, Shaquandra was accused of felony retail theft in July 2014. She ended up pleading guilty to the charge, was given community service and placed on court supervision, records show.
"She was free-spirited sometimes to a fault,'' her mother said. "She was naﶥ. When she loved, she loved hard. She trusted even harder. That was my baby's demise.''
"She wasn't perfect, but she didn't deserve that,'' her mother said.
Area South detectives are investigating, but no arrests have been made as of Monday night.
