Masked Gunman Shoots 21-Year-Old Woman On Halloween In Front Of Her Toddler Nieces

A masked gunman shot a Chicago woman on Halloween night during a botched robbery attempt as the woman's young nieces looked on.

Maira Coronel, 21, had spent the night trick-or-treating with twin sister, Leticia, and her sister's two daughters, ages 1 and 2 years old, according to the Chicago-Tribune. The group finished trick-or-treating around 9:20 p.m. that night and were sitting in a parked car when a masked gunman jumped in the back seat of the car alongside the young children and demanded that Leticia drive.

He asked the women for money and the twins handed over $40, Leticia later told reporters, according to the Chicago Sun Times. But when he asked for their cell phones, Maira allegedly refused. The man shot her in the back of the head twice before fleeing the scene.

“She was a loving, young girl,” Leticia told reporters Thursday, according to the Sun Times. “She was a kind person. She would never do anything to anybody.”

The victim's father, Carlos Coronel, told the Chicago Tribune he and his daughter had gone earlier in the day to a factory where she applied for a job. She had been scheduled to start her first day on Thursday, but will now never get the chance.

Maira was the last of his nine children to still live at home.

"Today we are left alone," he told the paper. "She was the only company that we had."

No arrests have been made in the case but the Chicago Police Department continues to investigate.

Alderman Gilbert Villegas, who represents the area where the shooting occurred, said the gunman likely blended in with the crowd because the shooting had occurred on Halloween night.

"If it's Halloween and somebody's wearing a mask, you're not expecting anything of it," he said, according to the Tribune.

Those in the community said they were shocked by the shooting but had recently noticed an increase in crime in the area.

"It's terrible what happened to that young girl. With all this violence, you don't feel free on your own block," Brenda Bahena, told the Sun Times in Spanish.

Community activist Andrew Holmes hopes the person responsible will come forward.

"To the perpetrator: You need to turn yourself in because I can guarantee you if your fingerprints are all over that car, save your mother and your father the headache and turn yourself in, because it will be a matter of time, especially if you're in the system already," he said, according to Chicago station WLS.

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