A Chicago woman has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 7-year-old Eddimar Hernandez Chacon, CNN reported. Shavon Gayden, 48, faces one felony count after the stabbing, which happened late Saturday morning in the East Chatham neighborhood.
Gayden is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. The case has drawn scrutiny to Gayden’s criminal history and to how the case will proceed in Cook County court.
The Latest
Gayden was formally charged with first-degree murder on Sunday, according to CNN. She had been scheduled to appear for a hearing Monday morning, but she was hospitalized and did not appear in court, CNN reported. No source has reported a new date for that hearing.
Chicago police described the stabbing as unprovoked, according to CBS News.
Case Background
Eddimar was walking near businesses in the 8600 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue late Saturday morning when she was approached and stabbed multiple times in the back, according to the AP. People nearby detained the attacker at the scene.
Eddimar was transported to the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, CBS News reported. Gayden was also taken to a hospital with injuries described as not life-threatening before she was arrested, according to the AP.
Gayden has been charged in at least four separate criminal cases in Cook County since 2016, CBS News reported. One case involved a 2023 attack on a Chicago Transit Authority bus operator.
What Officials Have Said
Chicago police described the attack as unprovoked, according to CBS News. No additional details about what led to the stabbing have been released.
What’s Next
Gayden’s detention hearing, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed after she was hospitalized, CNN reported. No new hearing date has been set. The case will proceed through Cook County court on the first-degree murder charge.
Reporting from The Associated Press, CNN and CBS News contributed to this story.
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