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Slain Teen's Mom: 'I'm Not Going To Bring My Daughter Back'

April McDaniel
April McDaniel (Source: Facebook)

CHICAGO (CBS) -- An Englewood family was mourning the death of an aspiring young singer and dancer, after she was shot and killed while sitting on a porch with friends and relatives on Monday.

CBS 2's Susanna Song reports 18-year-old April McDaniel and five other people were shot around 5 p.m. Monday in the 5700 block of South Sangamon Avenue.

April, who was shot in the throat, was later pronounced dead at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, authorities said.

"When I found out … it hurt me so bad," her mother, Hattie McDaniel said. "I'm angry, I'm sad, and I know I'm not going to bring my daughter back."

Witnesses said April was sitting with friends and relatives on the front steps of her neighbor's house Monday evening after school, when a masked man got out of his car, asked if they were selling drugs, and opened fire.

She aspired to be a singer one day, and recently recorded a song at her Englewood home, across the street from where she was killed.

"She was saying, 'Mom, I'm going to be somebody in my life,'" she said.

Hattie McDaniel held her daughter's picture close to her Tuesday morning.

"I'm going to miss her all my life," Hattie McDaniel said.

April's sister, Bridgett Jackson, said, "I saw her in a pile of blood. I was in shock. I couldn't breathe. My little sister, losing my little sister, I already lost two sisters."

More than 20 years ago, two of Jackson's sisters died in a fire. Now she is coping with another traumatic loss.

A 16-year-old boy, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was outside with April when shots rang out. He was shot in the left arm.

"I could have been dead," he said. "That would have been hard on my family."

April's 15-year-old cousin, Charles Drane, was shot in the leg.

Police searched a Jeep they believe might have been used in the shooting. The vehicle, which had Wisconsin plates, had been set on fire.

"What's their purpose? Getting out of the car, trying shooting people? Innocent people, especially my sister," Jackson said.

April's family said she would have graduated from John Hope College Prep High School on Saturday.

The other five people wounded in the shooting have since been released from the hospital.

Police said no one was in custody Tuesday morning, and detectives were still investigating the burned Jeep.

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