Illinois deputies are investigating the homicide of a young mother who was found dead from multiple bullet wounds while her daughter was in the backseat.
Maya Smith, 24, was found early Sunday morning and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say the shooting took place shortly after midnight in an alley in a Chicago suburb. Her 2-year-old daughter was found unharmed.
Smith’s family and friends were shocked to hear the news and described her as an effervescent woman who was loving, big-hearted, kind, compassionate and served as a rock to so many in her life.
“She always came through for me all the time… For me, I lost a sister. Maya was more like a sister to me than anything,” her friend Tasia Waters told ABC7.
She continued: “She was very, very picky with who can take care of her daughter. I loved, loved that about her. It was like she always wanted her safe all the time. She was a genuine person. She was very sweet. So sweet.”
Waters recalls Smith having an entrepreneurial spirit and was in school studying business. She previously worked at a bank but had big dreams to start her own business one day.
“She wanted to own her own business,” Waters said. “She was going to be successful any kind of way she could.”
She also worked as a food delivery driver, which Waters thinks, explains why she was in her car at the time the shooting took place.
Investigators had originally planned to hold a news conference Monday about the murder but it was subsequently canceled due to new information they received. They did, however, tell the press that no one has been charged in connection with the homicide.
Smith’s daughter is at home doing well and is being cared for by family.
