May 16--Friends gathered at makeshift memorial to pay their respects Sunday to a 16-year-old girl stabbed to death Saturday night on the South Side.
The girl was stabbed when a large group began fighting at 7:30 p.m. on the 6500 block of South Martin Luther King Drive in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood, said Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman.
The girl, identified as DeKayla Dansberry, 16, was stabbed in the chest and was pronounced dead at 8:24 p.m. at Stroger Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
Around 4 p.m. Sunday, dozens of people crowded into New Beginnings Church down the street from where Dansberry was stabbed. The Rev. Corey Brooks led the group in a prayer vigil.
Dansberry's mother, wearing a copper-colored coat, was ushered into the building, sobbing and disconsolate.
"My baby!" she screamed.
Brooks asked the group to pray for Dansberry's family but also had a larger message for the group in decrying the circumstances of the teenager's killing.
"We got to make things better for ourselves," Brooks said. "This is a negative situation; we can also turn it into something positive. We can use this as an opportunity to make things better for ourselves out of respect for DeKayla. We can't wait on anybody to come here and save us. We have to save ourselves."
Community activist Lamon Reccord also urged the young women and men in the crowd to take more responsibility for their actions, and for the men to do better to protect women and girls.
"Please, do not fight over words," Reccord told the group. "Please, do not fight over boys. Your future is more important than a fight. It's time for our young people to take care of each other."
With the cold air gusting, the mourners released dozens of white and purple balloons into the sky.
Shaudae Carter, who ran track with Dansberry, collapsed in tears as she tried to talk about her lifelong friend, sobbing into another friend's shoulder.
Carter's mother, Karen Washington, said the two girls had known each other since they were 4 years old.
"She was a real friend," said Shaudae, 15. "She was fun. She wanted to run track, she wanted to be a model, she wanted to be everything. She was just so cute and cool."
Washington said she thought of Dansberry like another daughter.
"I'm all cried out," Washington said, looking at her daughter. "I got to be strong for her right now. I got to be strong to support her."
Earlier Sunday afternoon, a group of about 20 people gathered around the site where Dansberry was stabbed, a grassy patch just inside the entrance of the Parkway Gardens apartment complex.
Friends tied red, white, blue and gold star balloons to the black fence along the sidewalk, above a white posterboard with messages written in black:
"I miss you already," and "You will be missed."
A large teddy bear with a red nose and red hearts on its paws was placed against the fence, next to a small pink bear and a small bunch of red flowers.
Nearby, friends assembled a large cluster of about 25 stuffed bears and animals. A few feet away, a small strip of yellow crime tape lay on the grass.
Passing cars on King Drive honked in support, while other motorists coming out of the apartment complex stopped near the memorial to pay their respects and in some cases, add a message to the posterboard.
Friends who congregated near the memorial later Sunday afternoon described Dansberry as an outgoing, sociable track star who ran the 200-meter dash at Johnson College Prep.
"She was funny, she had all the friends, she got good grades," said Tamya Lawshea, who said she used to go to school with Dansberry.
"It's sad. We never thought she'd be in a casket this early," said another young woman, who did not want to give her name.
Another friend, who also would not give his name, said he and Dansberry became friends through church activities.
"I've been crying since yesterday," the young man said. "It just happened so fast. It doesn't feel real."
As the afternoon wore on, and perhaps a nod to Dansberry's popularity, the memorial outgrew itself. The first posterboard filled up with messages so before long, several friends arrived with four more, neon-colored posterboards, which quickly ran out of writing space.
Police initially said two people were in custody in connection with the attack. But as of early Sunday morning, police corrected that information and said no one was in custody.
The Tribune's Alexandra Chachkevitch contributed.
