Woman killed in N.W. Baltimore was set to start new job, father says

Jasmine Chandler had loved working on hair since she was a young girl and asked her father for doll heads for Christmas to work on their locks, he said.

Chandler, 28, and a pregnant friend were on their way to a beauty supply shop Sunday evening to buy supplies when both women were shot inside a car in the 5100 block of Park Heights Avenue, just south of Pimlico, Baltimore police said.

Chandler died Sunday and police said Monday that her friend, identified only as a 30-year-old woman, lost her unborn child while being treated at a local hospital.

“People are just killed for no reason. It’s just crazy out here now,” Chandler’s father, Anthony Hamilton, said from his wide front porch on a home on a quiet, tree-lined street in Howard Park.

Hamilton, 53, said the woman who survived the shooting has three children besides the one she was expecting.

He said Chandler has a 10-year-old daughter who has been staying with him and his parents since Sunday.

“She woke up crying about her mother,” he said.

Hamilton said his granddaughter went to a scheduled doctor’s appointment Monday because he’s trying to keep her occupied.

Hamilton said Chandler was driving a car she often borrowed from a friend when they dropped off the pregnant victims’ children at an apartment where Chandler stayed with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend watched the children while Chandler and her friend headed to a beauty shop on Park Heights Avenue near Belvedere Avenue. Chandler was supposed to work on her friend’s daughters’ hair Sunday night.

Police said an unknown suspect ran up to the parked car, shot the women and fled. They have not made any arrests in the shooting.

A bystander at the scene told The Baltimore Sun that the shooter had been having an argument with one of the victims.

Hamilton said police have not told him much about the shooting, or why anyone would want to hurt his daughter.

Chandler was supposed to have started a new job Monday at an eldercare facility on Greenmount Avenue in East Baltimore. Chandler She had recently finished her certification, including a CPR course, Hamilton said. He went with her to a beauty salon at the Walbrook Junction shopping center in West Baltimore where she got her hair braided for the new job.

On her Facebook page, pictures showed how she liked to change her hairstyle regularly, including one in which she had short, curly blond hair and another with long braids.

Hamilton said he’s still trying to process his daughter’s death, but he also must begin making arrangements for her burial. He’s awaiting a call from Wiley Funeral Home and must pick up some of her belongings from a police department building today.

“Your kids are supposed to bury you, not you burying your kids,” he said.

As Chandler spoke, he waved down passing neighbors to tell them the news.

“Yeah man, they killed my daughter last night,” he said as a number of people came to console him.

Homicide detectives are investigating this incident. Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7Lockup. You can also text tips to 443-902-4824.