Nykea Aldridge, 32, the cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade, was shot and killed while pushing a child in a stroller on Chicago’s South Side, NBC 5 Chicago reports.
Jolinda Wade, Dwyane’s mother, identified Aldridge. Family spokesperson Pastor Edward Jones confirmed the tragic news.
Aldridge was on the city’s South Side Friday afternoon, walking to register her children for school, when two male subjects approached another one and opened fire. Aldridge, who was not the intended target, was struck in the head and the arm, according to ABC affiliate WLS-TV.
ESPN’s Jemele Hill announced the news on Facebook.
Jolinda Wade was on a panel yesterday organized by The Undefeated, the ESPN sports website, and voiced her shock that the lens so suddenly turned on her family.
“This is one particular time our family wished we didn’t have to be speaking to the media about anything,” Jolinda Wade said. “I just sat up on a panel yesterday with The Undefeated, talking about the violence that’s going on within our city of Chicago, never knowing that we would be the ones … actually living and experiencing it.”
This is the second child that Jolinda Wade’s sister has lost to gun violence, but it’s not going to stop her from speaking out about the damage being done to Chicago's communities.
“We’re still going to help and empower people like the one who senselessly shot my niece in the head,” she said. “And all of our young people out there, senselessly shooting each other.”
Pastor Jones echoed her sentiments.
“She loved God, loved her family,” Jones said of Aldridge, a mother of four. “Just like everyone else, she just wanted a better life, to live a better life. This is tragic because now it has struck home with us. Something has to be done. This has got to stop.”
Dwyane Wade, who recently returned to his hometown to join the Chicago Bulls, shared the news on Twitter, saying that “enough is enough.”
Two persons of interest are being questioned in this case.
Read more at NBC 5 Chicago and WLS-TV.