Forty-one-year-old Kendra Gardner, the Chicago woman who was reported missing last week, was found dead on May 25. Gardner was found around 4 p.m. on North Clifton Avenue in her 2008 gold Cadillac sedan. She had been shot to death and was pronounced on the scene.
Gardner had been reported missing on Saturday, May 22. The Chicago PD issued a missing person bulletin after being last seen around Trumbull Park Homes at 105th Street and Yates on the south side of Chicago.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Gardner’s death a homicide. Gardner had multiple gunshot wounds and injuries to her neck. Police found Gardner’s body after they responded to a call regarding an unconscious man not moving sitting in the driver’s seat of a car. When the police arrived, they learned that the man was actually Gardner and saw her neck wounds, which turned out to be gunshot wounds.
Gardner’s vehicle was last seen driving down Lake Shore Drive earlier on May 22. Chicago detectives used surveillance footage to track the vehicle and confirm the license plate.
Gardner is the latest victim of gun violence in Chicago. Twelve other people died from gun violence in the city during the weekend of May 22, the same day that Gardner disappeared. Forty-two people were also shot that day. The previous weekend, 48 people were shot, including a two-year-old little girl and a 13-year-old boy. Six of the shootings were fatal.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that the city needs to decrease the number of illegal gun sales to kids and noted that too many petty fights end up deadly. She also said that the country needs gun reform and help from the Biden Administration.
“We’re seeing too many petty fights playing out on social media ending up with somebody, a kid, pulling a gun. Too many instances in which children are in the cars with adults…They get shot at, and who gets shot? The child,” she said.
“Enough. It has got to be enough. But it depends upon us stepping up and saying, ‘We are not going to tolerate this anymore in our city.’ We need federal support to really make a meaningful difference,” Lightfoot continued. “And I’m hoping that the Biden administration not only listens to me, but is listening to mayors all across the country who are struggling with the same challenges. We need to have common sense gun reform. Period.”
The Chicago Police Department is investigating the case. No suspects or motives have been announced publicly.
