A mother of eight children was shot and killed last Wednesday, August 21 in Dalton, Illinois. As she was driving her four youngest children home from daycare, a stray bullet caught her in the head approximately three blocks from the center. She died in the hospital two days later.
As 40-year-old Marshia Bowman was driving four of her children home from Kiddy Kulture Childcare in Harvey, Illinois where she is also an assistant teacher, her minivan was caught in a crossfire between two rival groups.
After Bowman was shot, she lost control of the car and it veered off the road slamming into a tree at a nearby school. None of the four children were injured but Bowman took a stray bullet to the head that ended up being fatal.
Local trustee and community activist, Andrew Holmes said that witnesses saw a man armed with a gun run into a nearby house for cover. A SWAT team was sent to the address at 149th and Oak streets but didn’t discover anyone inside.
Marshia’s husband of 11 years, Leneaus Brown said “as a family, words could never express how hurt we are that our beloved wife, mother, sister, aunt, and friend is gone. I’m trying to cope, keep moving, keep going.”
Leneaus praised his wife’s dedication to helping others and always doing the right thing. “A lot of people do things because they are forced to do it. She helped because it’s what she wanted to do,” Bowman commented. “To her, it was a duty or responsibility, being a born-again Christian, to help.”
Bowman thanked the community of Cook County, for their “outpouring of support, well wishes, and prayers.” He has asked that his family be allowed “the privacy to mourn in peace.” Leneaus and Marshia are the parents of eight children ranging in ages from 1 to 29 years old.
Andrew Holmes mentioned that many residents have been eager to give information on anything they saw related to the shooting of Marshia Bowman. “A lot of residents are coming in, giving up information [and] more video of the suspects,” Holmes said.
No one has been taken into custody at the moment and the investigation is still ongoing. This incident isn’t the only shooting that has occurred in the small community of Dalton, Illinois. This past Monday an armed robbery took place in which police traded gunfire with a suspect outside a car dealership.
“You can’t even pinpoint an area anymore, this is everywhere. It’s in Chicago, it’s in my area, it’s just all over,” Bowman said. In reference to the shooter behind his wife’s death, he said, “They need to turn themselves in. An end needs to come to this situation.”
