Leticia Barrera had thought twice about taking her children trick-or-treating while her husband was away, but she didn’t want them to miss out on a fun night of costumes and candy.
She took her children door-to-door with a group of neighbors Wednesday, her 2-year-old daughter dressed in a green dinosaur costume and one of her sons in firefighter gear.
But the outing ended in tragedy when the pregnant mother of three was fatally shot in the head — a victim of gang gunfire — just a few steps from her front door.
“She was dedicated to her babies,” her brother-in-law Lucio Flores said as he cried. “This neighborhood is a family. We all know each other, and we need help right now.”
Barrera, 38, was shot shortly before 6 p.m. as she stood on the sidewalk near the gate to her home in the 4800 block of South Seeley Avenue.
Police were searching for two teenage suspects Thursday and asked for help from residents of the Back of the Yards neighborhood after video from a nearby police surveillance camera failed to identify the shooter or shooters.
“We are very dependent on the community in getting information to us on this one,” said Wentworth Area Cmdr. Patricia Walsh, citing the recent murder of 10-year-old Arthur Jones as an example of the public helping police solve the case.
Barrera’s husband, Manuel Flores, rushed home Thursday from a trip to Florida to begin making plans to bury his wife, who was three months pregnant. Their three children, ages 2, 4, and 6, were not injured in the gunfire.
“I came downstairs when I heard the shots and saw her lying there,” said Ramiro Garcia, who lives on the third floor above Barrera. “The kids were crying as they were taken away.”
About 100 people held a vigil Thursday night at the site of the shooting, where candles, flowers and a collection box sat near bloodstains on the sidewalk.
Two crosses, one for Barrera and another for her unborn child, were blessed and placed among the makeshift memorial. Six pastors prayed in English and Spanish and announced that there would be a neighborhood march against violence at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“We will not be afraid and shut our doors,” said Rev. Bruce Wellems of Holy Cross-Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church. Sister Joellen Tumas at Holy Cross said Barrera came to the church’s food pantry every couple of weeks since spring to pick up bread, meat, rice and beans for the family. She also recently signed her children up for the church’s Angel Project, which provides clothing and toy donations for needy children during the holidays.
“She would always bring her children,” Tumas said. “She was a very caring mom. My heart goes out to those three little ones who are going to grow up without a mother.”
Family members said Barrera moved to Chicago from Mexico seven years ago, and her husband works as a roofer to support the family. The couple were looking forward to their fourth child.
Barrera, three other adults and about 10 children went trick-or-treating along 47th Street, a busy, well-lit business district, with hopes that it would be safer than the residential streets, said a neighbor who was with her that afternoon. Barrera was part of a tightknit group of mothers who walked their children to Hedges Elementary School and congregated on street corners with their children.
“They hang out there talking with the strollers,” said Jose Calderon, who owns Santa Maria Foods on South Seeley Avenue. “I’d rather see mothers and kids out there rather than gangbangers.”
