Cook County Crime Stoppers announced a $10,000 reward after a 26-year-old hairstylist was shot in her car in Chicago’s Gresham neighborhood on February 4.
After the initial shooting, Ayres’ white Chevy sedan crashed into a brown van. Three masked gunmen then approached the car on foot and opened fire.
The gunmen returned to the getaway vehicle, a red Alfa Romeo. The driver pulled up to Ayres’s car so the gunmen could fire more shots into the vehicle. The getaway car was later found torched and abandoned.
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?WATCH: In Chicago, a woman was fatally shot, a man was wounded, and an infant in the back seat was miraculously unharmed.
Meanwhile, Brandon Johnson continues focusing on fighting ICE instead of violent criminals.pic.twitter.com/oDzaqhfCd0
— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) February 5, 2026
Ayres was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds at OSF Little Company of Mary hospital.
Ayres’s boyfriend, 27, was wounded in the arm and buttocks and is in stable condition. The victim’s infant daughter was unharmed in the back seat.
The driver of the brown van declined medical treatment, ABC 7 News reported.
Police believe Ayres was the gunmen’s intended target. The motive for the shooting is unknown.
Ayres’ godfather, Pastor Kirk Bell, confirmed her infant daughter, who is less than a year old, was in the back seat.
“You know, there’s a baby in the car. These animals have no value on life. This is nothing to them. They need to clean this city up. There’s gangs, and there’s shooting and the killing. It’s just unbelievable,” Bell said.
Cook County Crime Stoppers offered a $10,000 reward leading to the capture of the assailants.
“This is yet another senseless and cowardly act of violence,” said Paul Rutherford, Executive Director of Cook County Crime Stoppers.
“The fact that this shooting occurred in the daytime hours and while a mother was inside a car with a child is absolutely outrageous. No family should ever have to experience this level of brutality. We need the public’s help to identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” he said.
