Aaren O’Connor | Facebook
By DANIEL BROWN, JORDAN OWEN and JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of the person responsible for the shooting death of Aaren O’Connor.
O’Connor died two days after she was struck by a stray bullet while talking to her father on the phone in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood on the South Side.
About 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5, Aaren O’Connor was sitting in her 2009 gray Honda Civic in the 2000 block of West 21st Place and talking to her father on her cellphone when she was struck by gunfire, according to Chicago Police.
O’Connor, who lived on the same block, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she died two days later, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Police said O’Connor was not the intended target of the shooting, which started with a fight on the block where she was killed.
Crime Stoppers is asking anyone with information to call (800) 535-STOP, police said. Callers can remain anonymous, and will be given a code number.
O’Connor worked at the Tomy toy company in Oak Brook, and co-workers helped set up a GoFundMe page. The “Aaren O’Connor Memorial Fund” account on the GoFundMe website has raised more than $35,000 in a week for the San Diego native who moved to Chicago about a year-and-a-half ago.
Donations will initially be used to help her family with funeral and memorial service expenses, but the rest of the money will be used to fund a scholarship in O’Connor’s memory to help at-risk youth, according to the website.