Advocate for Anti-Violence, gunned down in Chicago

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Leonore Draper was minutes away from entering her West Pullman home after an anti-violence charity event she attended Friday night when she was shot and killed.

Police found Draper, 32, shot in the chest and arm in a parked car near her home in the 11600 block of South Laflin Street in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side at about 10:35 p.m., about 30 minutes after the fundraiser she went to was over. She was pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 12:32 a.m., according to the medical examiner's office.

“The irony behind her getting shot… is beyond me,” said Fallon Barrett, 33, who has been close friends with Draper since high school. “I feel like I’m in this really bad dream that I wanna wake up from.”

Draper was one of four people who were killed in a wave of shootings on Chicago's South, West and Southwest sides starting Friday afternoon, according to authorities; 26 other people suffered gunshot wounds. Among those killed were a 17-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man. An 86-year-old man was also killed in a neighborhood dispute involving an off-duty police officer Friday afternoon that police say began when the man opened fire on the officer's wife.

Police said Draper’s death was a result of a “possible drive-by shooting,” and as of Saturday no one was in custody in connection with the incident.

The fundraiser Draper attended and helped organize was called A Charitable Confection and was benefitting Project Orange Tree, an anti-violence campaign that started after the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendelton last year.

"It's really ironic," said Christina Isherwood, who helped organize the charity event Draper attended. "She was a part of an anti-violence effort, and she becomes a victim of violence herself."

Friends and family described Draper as a genuine, funny and “unfailingly loyal” person. Originally from Houston, Draper moved to Chicago more than 10 years ago and has been working as a budget analyst for the Chicago Public Schools, according to family members.

Yolanda Washington, 42, one of Draper’s two sisters, said Draper had been involved in community service since she was young. On Saturday, Draper was also supposed to attend another fundraiser, benefitting another cause -- multiple sclerosis, a disease that affects her husband Jason Draper, she said.

“It’s just so shocking,” Washington said, adding that she last talked to Draper on Thursday, which was Washington’s birthday.

Draper, whose family mostly still lives in Houston, was supposed to visit her relatives on Mother’s Day, Washington said.

“Our prayer is that the community will join us and pray that ? will move in his own way to put an end to these senseless killings in Chicago,” Draper’s family said in a statement.

Nza-Ari Khepra, Project Orange Tree’s president, said Draper was one of the few people who tried to do something about Chicago’s endless shootings.

“It’s so sadly real,” said Khepra, who was also at the charity event Draper attended Friday night. “Everyone is in the constant terror. There is literally nowhere you can go to be safe.”

Khepra, a senior at King College Prep High School, called for more action to be taken to prevent violence in the city.

“Everyone deserves a proper lifetime,” she said. “This should never have to be anyone.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cleonore-draper-chicago-gun-violence-20140426,0,4595311.story
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