By Cat Zakrzewski
Homicide Watch Chicago
Georgina Randell, 30, moved back to her family’s home in Lawndale this past May, with her two young children in tow. She had plans to return to school to study criminal justice.
But before she could even settle into her new home, her boyfriend of one month allegedly shot her to death, steps away from her five-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter.
A woman, who said she was Randell's cousin but asked that her name not be used, said she witnessed the shooting at the family’s home on the 1600 block of S. Drake Ave. She said Randell was standing at the bottom of her front steps, with her children nearby, when the man pulled out a gun and shot Randell multiple times. She died shortly after at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Randell’s cousin said the shooting police described as a "domestic" dispute was not part of a loud or violent argument.
"They said a few words to each other and, basically, he shot her," she said.
Randell grew up in Lawndale, but lived with her mother in Kansas City, Missouri, for more than a decade before returning to her childhood home two months ago.
“She’s very family oriented,” Randell’s cousin said.
On Tuesday, some of Randell’s cousins gathered on the steps of the family home next-door to where Randell lived. As Randell’s son hopped on the steps and her daughter ran around the yard, Shonique Sanders, Randell’s cousin, said she had warned her cousin about her boyfriend. Sanders, 29, said she was with Randell when she met him. She said he constantly called Randell and was often insecure. He often watched her from his house down the street, Sanders said.
“She saw what was going on,” Sanders said. “She was getting herself out of the situation. He wasn’t taking it well.”
Police captured the man hours after the shooting occurred in west suburban Bellwood. Originally, a witness said the man barricaded himself inside a home on South Drake Avenue, but a SWAT team investigation revealed he was not inside the house.
The man had not been charged as of Tuesday.
(Homicide Watch Editor John Carpenter also contributed to this report.)