Teenage Girl Fatally Stabbed In Parkway Gardens
Updated 05/15/16 - 4:55 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 15-year-old girl was fatally stabbed Saturday evening in the South Side Parkway Gardens neighborhood.
De'Kayla Dansberry was stabbed in the upper chest after a fight broke out about 7:45 p.m. in the 6500 block of South King Drive, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner's office.
She was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she died at 8:24 p.m., authorities said.
Dansberry was a freshman at Johnson College Prep, and was a sprinter on the track team, getting ready to run in the state finals.
"She was a good teammate. She was always happy. She kept a smile on my face. It's just heartbreaking. I don't believe it," said teammate Tyanna Chatman.
Friends said Dansberry was a jokester, and loved to dance.
"I was real close to her. Just to know her for a few months, it felt like years," Faith Cathery said.
The stabbing occurred on what has come to be known as "O-Block," the site of a long-running war between two rival South Side gangs, but her pastor, Rev. Corey Brooks said the fight was between two groups of girls who knew each other. He said both De'Kayla and the girl who apparently stabbed her have gone to his church.
"One of the other little girls who is believed to be the person who stabbed her was also part of the community as well, and was just here in our church on Friday," Brooks said.
Brooks said De'Kayla and the other girl were out with friends when the two groups crossed paths, and an earlier argument led to a fight that resulted in De'Kayla's stabbing.
Community activist Andrew Holmes pleaded with other teenagers not only to stop the violence, but to stop posting fights on social media.
"From listening and looking, social media played a big part in this. It may have led up to this; and then ultimately to this young lady losing her life, but this didn't have to happen," Holmes said.
Photos and video of the fight later were posted on social media.
"For the ones who's sitting around, seeing all the fighting and videotaping it, instead of them stopping the fight, they're condoning it," said Faith Bradley, the mother of one of De'Kayla's friends.
Two people were questioned by detectives after the stabbing, but were later released, police said.
No one was in custody Sunday afternoon.