7-Year-Old Girl Stabbed to Death on Chicago Sidewalk as Witness Knocks Alleged Attacker Unconscious

A 7-year-old girl died after a woman approached her on a Chicago sidewalk on Saturday, 3 October 2026, and stabbed her multiple times in the back, police said. Witnesses pursued the woman from the scene, and one bystander struck her, causing her to lose consciousness, a witness told CWBChicago. Police have not confirmed that account.

A 48-year-old woman, according to the same report, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said, before being placed in custody. No charges had been announced, and she had not been publicly identified.

Girl Identified as Edi Mari Hernandez Chacon

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office identified the girl as Edi Mari Hernandez Chacon. She was walking southbound in the 8600 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, near East 86th Street in Chatham, at about 11.55am, police said. She was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Security video appears to show her walking hand-in-hand with a woman before the attack, according to a Chicago television station. Police have not said whether the girl and the woman knew each other, or what prompted the attack.

Bystanders Pursued Woman Near Scene

Several witnesses called 911, a Chicago news website reported. Another witness flagged down a passing Chicago police patrol car and officers applied pressure to the girl's wounds while waiting for an ambulance, according to its reporting. Emergency medical personnel took Edi to Comer Children's Hospital. The woman was also taken to hospital for treatment before being placed in custody.

William Smith, a nearby barber, told a Chicago television station that he heard someone identify the woman as the person responsible as she ran from the area. Smith said bystanders pursued her. He said one person carried what appeared to be jumper cables. A witness told CWBChicago that a bystander struck the woman until she fell, before others joined the confrontation.

A preliminary police report cited by CWBChicago said that investigators found two knives in the woman's purse, both of them clean. A third knife, recovered between the attack site and where the woman was stopped, was believed to have been used in the stabbing, the publication reported. The claim could not be independently verified. Area 2 detectives were investigating.

Woman's Court History and Active Warrant

Court records cited by CWBChicago show that the woman pleaded guilty in November 2024 to aggravated battery of a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver in South Chicago and received two years' probation.

She was arrested again in December 2024 for misdemeanor battery and assault in a probation-violation case, the records show. She pleaded guilty to those charges in July 2025 and received court supervision.

An arrest warrant was issued in February 2025 after she failed to appear for a status hearing in the probation matter. The report said, citing a source, that the warrant remained active in a police database when she was taken into police custody on Saturday.

Authorities had not publicly stated that the earlier cases or the warrant were connected to Saturday's stabbing.