Friends Remember City Employee Caught In Crossfire Outside Starbucks
(CBS) -- Gun violence weighed heavily on one group of friends Friday.
They gathered to mourn a 3-1-1 operator gunned down after she went out for a cup of coffee a week before at a Starbucks at 35th and State.
"At this very sport that standing, almost exactly one week ago, a young woman was shot, right here," Phillip Jackson of the Black Star Project said.
Yvonne Nelson was affectionately known as "Rudy."
"Why it had to be Rudy, we don't question. We just question when does it end?" Jacquenette Turner, a classmate of Nelson's, said.
A young man was wounded in the shooting, within a couple of blocks of Chicago Police Department's main headquarters. Police say he was the target of a gang-related shooting, while Nelson, 49, was simply an innocent bystander.
"She was just … Chicago," classmate Veverly Coleman said.
Ms. Nelson will be laid to rest Saturday.
Nelson's friends said they have heard an arrest has been made in the case, but police would not confirm that. Sources say investigators have made headway and are looking at a "potential" suspect.
Friday's memorial event came as community leaders held a variety of events across the city in hopes of curbing violence this holiday weekend.
