Tenisha Mallett/Facebook
By ELIZABETH CZAPSKI
Homicide Watch Chicago
Tenisha Mallett was working on going back to school, hoping to make a better life for herself and young daughter.
She attended the Austin Career Education Center, and was interested in culinary arts, her mother, Yvonne Mallett, said.
Yvonne, who recently moved to Indiana, offered to watch her then-3-year-old granddaughter, Ta'zarry, while Tenisha settled in and prepared for school. On a Thursday in February, Tenisha, 21, traveled back to Chicago.
"When I took her to the train station, her daughter started crying, and then it made me cry, and it was hard for her to leave. But then she said, 'I’ll be back next week, soon as I get settled, I’ll be back next week to get her,'" Yvonne Mallett said. "She didn’t want to leave her."
Tenisha Mallett (left) with older sister Teaira Mallett (right)/Facebook
That Saturday, Feb. 11, Tenisha Mallett, who also went by "Keisha," was killed in a shooting in the West Side Austin neighborhood that left three other people wounded.
Mallett was shot in the neck and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She lived in Austin.
The four were outside about 8:30 p.m. in the 100 block of North Mayfield when a dark SUV approached, Chicago Police said. Two people got out of the SUV and began shooting in the direction of the group.
Family members said Mallett had experienced gun violence in the past.
Her boyfriend, Terontay Atkinson, was killed in Chicago in 2015.
“Tenisha said Terontay was like a father to her daughter, and he was the only father her daughter ever knew,” a family member said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help her daughter, Ta’zarry.
Three other people were wounded in the attack that killed Mallet.
A 25-year-old man was shot in the arm; an 18-year-old man was shot in the legs; and a 25-year-old woman was shot in the face. All of their conditions were stabilized, police said.
Yvonne Mallet said that, growing up, her daughter was a "fun-loving child" who was outgoing and happy and loved giving people hugs. She and her cousins liked to put on plays and dance shows to show their parents.
Teaira Mallett (left) with sister Tenisha Mallett (right)/Facebook
Tenisha's older sister Tearia Mallett, 23, said her sister wanted to be a model when they were children.
She said she and her sister had a typical sibling relationship. "We argued...but at the end of the day we still loved each other," she said, adding that the sisters constantly kept in contact.
As an adult, Tenisha was "a family person," her mother said, who loved her daughter and enjoyed taking her to the park. "She’ll do anything for her baby. Anything," she said.
Teaira Mallet said her sister "spoiled" her daughter Ta'zarry. "Anything my niece asked her for, she got it," she said.
"[Tenisha] was really a beautiful person. Everybody loved her," Yvonne Mallett said.
Tenisha had attended Saginaw High School in Saginaw, Michigan, where she lived for four years before moving back to Chicago, her mother said.
Both women said they found out about Tenisha's death the morning after she was killed. Yvonne Mallett's brother, whom her daughter was staying with at the time, called them.
When Teaira Mallett heard the news, "I just got beside myself," she said.
Yvonne Mallett said the police told her "Tenisha was with one boy and her friend was with the other boy" when "somebody in a black truck got out and just started shooting. And they said the guy that she was with was the intended target, but they didn’t kill him."
Teaira Mallett said the police believe the shooting was a case of mistaken identity, or the victims may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Tenisha Mallett's funeral/Facebook
Pink was Tenisha's favorite color, so her funeral was pink-themed, her sister said. "She had a beautiful pink casket, and she had a beautiful silk blouse and a pink tie," Teaira Mallett said.
Her sister, her best friend and some of her cousins served as pallbearers. Everyone wore pink and white. "We tried to do as best as we can and make it special," Teaira Mallett said.
Yvonne Mallett said Ta'zarry, now 4, understands "that her mother’s in heaven" because Mallett's mother, who played a big role in Ta'zarry's life, passed away two years ago."Sometimes she acts out and she says she wants her momma, and that makes me even sadder," Yvonne Mallett said.
She said she and her daughter were close. "She was one that I really talked to more than all of my kids. She was always around more than the other kids," Mallett said. When Tenisha was a teenager, Yvonne Mallett said, mother and daughter argued a lot "like every teenager," but it got better after Tenisha had her own daughter.
Tenisha Mallett's favorite color was pink./Facebook
"We just talked a lot, and argued a lot, but that was like our thing," Yvonne Mallett said. "She always made the situation better, or funny, or something like that. And I really miss that."
Yvonne Mallett said she has trouble sleeping and suffers from depression and anxiety. She is receiving help from Chicago Survivors.
"I’m just trying to handle this day by day," she said. "We’re dealing with it, but it’s not easy."