5-year-old girl shot and killed on Near West Side loved dancing, gymnastics

Reign Ware was still dancing on the floor.

It didn't matter to the 5-year-old little girl whether it was in the living room at home or at her aunt's birthday party: even the birthday cake couldn't deter the “queen of TikTok”, as she was called his mother, Raven Adams. She fell like a gymnast wherever she could. Adams had planned to enroll her daughter in gymnastics classes, but she was waiting for the child to “grow up” so as not to get injured.

Reign was about to start kindergarten next school year, a big step for the “smart” and “cheerful” girl who also loved swimming on family outings to local pools and the Wisconsin Dells.

“She was just full of life,” Adams, a Garfield Ridge resident, told the Sun-Times Monday. “She just wanted to live, she just wanted to be a kid.”

Reign was shot around 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning in the 200 block of South Campbell Avenue while she sat in the car with her father. His mother said the family was leaving a family party. “In the wrong place at the wrong time.”

His father was unhurt.

A 24-year-old man, who was not known to the family, was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound to the left thigh.

According to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times, nearly 60 shell casings of four different calibers were found at the scene where a black Jeep Cherokee had stopped and someone inside began shooting. Investigators believe other people may also have fired shots from a nearby alley.

No arrests have been made.

In the hours after the shooting, Adams said rumors swirled about why Reign and her father were out so late. Reign's 9-year-old sister, who Reign “learned everything” from, has not been informed of her death, but the family is concerned about what she might read or hear about the shooting.

“We're just trying to be a little more stable than yesterday,” said Miss Adams, Reign's grandmother, who declined to give her first name for fear of reprisals from those involved in the attack. “People are so cruel these days. … We try to stay calm and hug each other.

The girl's mother is now asking the shooters to come forward and surrender.

“I just want justice for my baby,” Adams said. “The violence simply has to stop, how long will it last? Until everyone kills everyone? Just let people live.

At least eight children have been killed in Chicago this year.