Tenisha Mallett | Homicide Watch Chicago

Young mother Tenisha Mallett was 'a beautiful person' who wanted to make a better life for her and her daughter

Elizabeth Czapski — Mon, 29 May 2017 09:31:32 -0500

Tenisha Mallett/Facebook

By ELIZABETH CZAPSKI
Homicide Watch Chicago

Tenisha Mallett was working on going back to school, hoping to make a better life for herself and young daughter.

She attended the Austin Career Education Center, and was interested in culinary arts, her mother, Yvonne Mallett, said.

Yvonne, who recently moved to Indiana, offered to watch her then-3-year-old granddaughter, Ta'zarry, while Tenisha settled in and prepared for school. On a Thursday in February, Tenisha, 21, traveled back to Chicago.

"When I took her to the train station, her daughter started crying, and then it made me cry, and it was hard for her to leave. But then she said, 'I’ll be back next week, soon as I get settled, I’ll be back next week to get her,'" Yvonne Mallett said. "She didn’t want to leave her."

Tenisha Mallett (left) with older sister Teaira Mallett (right)/Facebook

That Saturday, Feb. 11, Tenisha Mallett, who also went by "Keisha," was killed in a shooting in the West Side Austin neighborhood that left three other people wounded.

Mallett was shot in the neck and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She lived in Austin.

The four were outside about 8:30 p.m. in the 100 block of North Mayfield when a dark SUV approached, Chicago Police said. Two people got out of the SUV and began shooting in the direction of the group.

Family members said Mallett had experienced gun violence in the past.

Her boyfriend, Terontay Atkinson, was killed in Chicago in 2015.

“Tenisha said Terontay was like a father to her daughter, and he was the only father her daughter ever knew,” a family member said.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help her daughter, Ta’zarry.

Three other people were wounded in the attack that killed Mallet.

A 25-year-old man was shot in the arm; an 18-year-old man was shot in the legs; and a 25-year-old woman was shot in the face. All of their conditions were stabilized, police said.

Yvonne Mallet said that, growing up, her daughter was a "fun-loving child" who was outgoing and happy and loved giving people hugs. She and her cousins liked to put on plays and dance shows to show their parents.

Teaira Mallett (left) with sister Tenisha Mallett (right)/Facebook

Tenisha's older sister Tearia Mallett, 23, said her sister wanted to be a model when they were children.

She said she and her sister had a typical sibling relationship. "We argued...but at the end of the day we still loved each other," she said, adding that the sisters constantly kept in contact.

As an adult, Tenisha was "a family person," her mother said, who loved her daughter and enjoyed taking her to the park. "She’ll do anything for her baby. Anything," she said.

Teaira Mallet said her sister "spoiled" her daughter Ta'zarry. "Anything my niece asked her for, she got it," she said.

"[Tenisha] was really a beautiful person. Everybody loved her," Yvonne Mallett said.

Tenisha had attended Saginaw High School in Saginaw, Michigan, where she lived for four years before moving back to Chicago, her mother said.

Both women said they found out about Tenisha's death the morning after she was killed. Yvonne Mallett's brother, whom her daughter was staying with at the time, called them.

When Teaira Mallett heard the news, "I just got beside myself," she said.

Yvonne Mallett said the police told her "Tenisha was with one boy and her friend was with the other boy" when "somebody in a black truck got out and just started shooting. And they said the guy that she was with was the intended target, but they didn’t kill him."

Teaira Mallett said the police believe the shooting was a case of mistaken identity, or the victims may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tenisha Mallett's funeral/Facebook

Pink was Tenisha's favorite color, so her funeral was pink-themed, her sister said. "She had a beautiful pink casket, and she had a beautiful silk blouse and a pink tie," Teaira Mallett said.

Her sister, her best friend and some of her cousins served as pallbearers. Everyone wore pink and white. "We tried to do as best as we can and make it special," Teaira Mallett said.

Yvonne Mallett said Ta'zarry, now 4, understands "that her mother’s in heaven" because Mallett's mother, who played a big role in Ta'zarry's life, passed away two years ago."Sometimes she acts out and she says she wants her momma, and that makes me even sadder," Yvonne Mallett said.

She said she and her daughter were close. "She was one that I really talked to more than all of my kids. She was always around more than the other kids," Mallett said. When Tenisha was a teenager, Yvonne Mallett said, mother and daughter argued a lot "like every teenager," but it got better after Tenisha had her own daughter.

Tenisha Mallett's favorite color was pink./Facebook

"We just talked a lot, and argued a lot, but that was like our thing," Yvonne Mallett said. "She always made the situation better, or funny, or something like that. And I really miss that."

Yvonne Mallett said she has trouble sleeping and suffers from depression and anxiety. She is receiving help from Chicago Survivors.

"I’m just trying to handle this day by day," she said. "We’re dealing with it, but it’s not easy."

WEEK IN REVIEW: At least 10 more killed in Chicago, including 2-month-old baby and popular local rap singer

Jeff Mayes — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 12:28:31 -0600

By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

It was another violent week in Chicago, with at least 10 people killed last week, including three in the West Austin neighborhood alone.

The death toll included a 2-month-old girl whose death in the Humboldt Park neighborhood was ruled a homicide by child abuse; and a popular local rapper killed after getting into a fight on a CTA Green Line train near downtown.

Family members took the baby, Aliya Acosta, to a hospital on Jan. 17 after she became unresponsive in her home, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. She was later transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m. Thursday.

An autopsy Friday found she died from multiple injuries caused by child abuse, and the death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner's office.

An Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokeswoman said the agency is investigating allegations of abuse against the girl’s mother, father and other caregivers; while Area North detectives are conducting a death investigation.

The rapper was stabbed to death Wednesday afternoon near Metra tracks in the Fulton River District. Walter Long Jr., 24, got into a fight with someone who pulled out a sharp object about 3:20 p.m. in the 400 block of North Clinton, police and the medical examiner’s office said.

Long, who rapped under the names dinnerwithjohn and JohnWalt, suffered a laceration to his upper left torso and was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Thursday, Kevin Alexander of East Garfield Park was charged with Long's murder. Alexander, 23, who knew Long, got into a fight with him on a train, which continued when they got off. Prosecutors say Long tried to walk away, but AlLexander went after him and stabbed him twice in the torso.

Alexander was taken into custody about two hours later at the University of Illinois Hospital, where he was being treated for a laceration to his chin, police said. He was ordered held on a $200,000 bond.

The week's death toll in Austin started when a man was shot to death on a front porch early Saturday. Keenan Turner, 29, was sitting in front of a home about 2:30 a.m. in the 300 block of North Lorel when someone walked up and shot him repeatedly across the body, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Turner was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where he was pronounced dead minutes later.
A 33-year-old man was found shot to death hours later in a neighborhood alley. Officers responding to a shooting at 6:53 a.m. in the 100 block of North Menard found Taurins Pope unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the head, according to police and the medical examiner's office. He was dead at the scene.
A woman was killed and three other people wounded in a Saturday night shooting in Austin. The four were outside about 8:30 p.m. in the 100 block of North Mayfield when a dark SUV approached, police said. Two people got out and started shooting. Tenisha Mallett, 21, was shot in the neck and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the medical examiner's office.
A 25-year-old man was shot in the arm and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital. An 18-year-old man was shot in his legs and was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. And another 25-year-old woman was shot in her face and was taken to Stroger Hospital. All of their condition were stabilized, police said.
A man was found shot to death Sunday afternoon in the South Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood. Ryan Ellis, 25, was found with multiple gunshot wounds to the body in the 1400 block of West 84th Street at 1:55 p.m., according to police and the medical examiner's office. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 45-year-old man was killed and another man wounded in a shooting Sunday afternoon in the South Shore neighborhood. Steven C. Jackson was standing in the 2400 block of East 75th Street at 1:44 p.m. when someone walked up and fired shots, according to police and the medical examiner's office.
Jackson was shot in the face and neck, and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later. A second man, 54, was found with a gunshot wound to the right thigh and was also taken to Northwestern, where his condition stabilized.
A 17-year-old boy was shot to death Thursday night in the Jefferson Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side. About 9 p.m., Alvin Stoll was with someone else in an alley in the 5300 block of West Foster when a shooter in a dark-colored car opened fire, hitting the boy in the abdomen, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Stoll was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he died an hour later.
A man and woman were found shot to death Monday morning in a home in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side. Officers responded to a call of a person shot at 7:36 a.m. in the 2500 block of West 46th Street, according to police. Pricilla A. Gloria Reyes, 33, was found shot in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the medical examiner’s office. Edwin Eliseco Chuy Cutzal, 31, was shot multiple times and was also pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. Both of their deaths were ruled homicides.

Tenisha Mallett killed, three others wounded when two gunmen get out of SUV and open fire on group in Austin

Jeff Mayes — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 12:23:51 -0600

A young mother killed in a Saturday night shooting in the West Side Austin neighborhood that left three other people wounded has been identified as 21-year-old Tenisha Mallett.

Tenisha Mallet | family photo

Mallett was shot in the neck and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She lived in Austin.

Family members said Mallett, who leaves behind a 3-year-old daughter, had experienced gun violence in the past.

"She lost a very close friend to gun violence in Chicago in October 2015. The friend's name is Terontay (Choppa) Atkinson," a family member said. "Tenisha said Terontay was like a father to her daughter, and he was the only father her daughter ever knew."

A graduate of Saginaw High School in Saginaw, Michigan, she had worked as a cashier at McDonald's.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help her daughter, Ta'zarry.

Three other people were wounded in the attack that killed Mallet.

A 25-year-old man was shot in the arm and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said. An 18-year-old man was shot in the legs and was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. And a 25-year-old woman was shot in the face and was taken to Stroger Hospital.

All of their conditions were stabilized, police said.

--Chicago Sun-Times Wire