Chicago Activist Leonore Draper Killed After Leaving Anti-Violence Fundraiser

Rest in peace to this inspiring young lady…

Chicago Activist Leonore Draper Killed After Leaving Anti-Violence Fundraiser

Leonore Draper was minutes away from entering her West Pullman home after an anti-violence charity event she attended Friday night when she was shot and killed.

Via Chicago Tribune reports:

Police found Draper, 32, shot in the chest and arm in a parked car near her home in the 11600 block of South Laflin Street in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side at about 10:35 p.m., about 30 minutes after the fundraiser she went to was over. She was pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 12:32 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

“The irony behind her getting shot… is beyond me,” said Fallon Barrett, 33, who has been close friends with Draper since high school. “I feel like I’m in this really bad dream that I wanna wake up from.”

Draper was one of four people who were killed in a wave of shootings on Chicago’s South, West and Southwest sides starting Friday afternoon, according to authorities; 26 other people suffered gunshot wounds. Among those killed were a 17-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man. An 86-year-old man was also killed in a neighborhood dispute involving an off-duty police officer Friday afternoon that police say began when the man opened fire on the officer’s wife.

 

Police said Draper’s death was a result of a “possible drive-by shooting,” and as of Saturday no one was in custody in connection with the incident.

The fundraiser Draper attended and helped organize was called A Charitable Confection and was benefitting Project Orange Tree, an anti-violence campaign that started after the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendelton last year.

“It’s really ironic,” said Christina Isherwood, who helped organize the charity event Draper attended. “She was a part of an anti-violence effort, and she becomes a victim of violence herself.”

Friends and family described Draper as a genuine, funny and “unfailingly loyal” person. Originally from Houston, Draper moved to Chicago more than 10 years ago and has been working as a budget analyst for the Chicago Public Schools, according to family members.

Please keep the entire Draper family in your prayers in this time of tremendous sorrow. It’s a true shame this woman lost her life while trying to help the city. What can Chicago and other cities suffering from the turmoil of violence do in its time of extreme need?