Victim’s mother struggles to cope
She moved kids after father’s killing but 1 met same fate
When Jasmine Noble was 9 years old, her father was shot and killed in the North Lawndale area of Chicago.
Jasmine’s mother, Shanty Pirtle, scooped up her six children and moved to Aurora four years ago, saying she didn’t want them living in that kind of environment.
When she received news that Jasmine, 15, was killed in a shooting inside a house in the 400 block of Florida Avenue on Aurora’s near West Side on Nov. 24, Pirtle said she went into shock.
“For my child to be murdered the same way her father was, I’m totally lost right now,” Pirtle said. “I moved to get away from the gun violence and now I’m dealing with the same pain.”
In several Facebook posts on Jasmine’s wall, friends and family wrote that Jasmine is now reunited with her father.
Pirtle said her daughter went to a party at a friend’s house the night she was killed, and that she did not come home. She was found shot dead in the house on Florida Avenue, Pirtle said.
The circumstances of the shooting are still unclear, and police officials said they are investigating it as a death with suspicious circumstances. The death has not yet been classified as a homicide, Aurora police spokesman Paris Lewbel said.
Jasmine was a freshman attending East Aurora High School’s Extension Campus.
“She was sweet, smart and was nice to anyone,” Pirtle said. “She loved to read and draw.”
Pirtle said she did not celebrate Thanksgiving this year because she has nothing to be thankful for. She said she is holding out hope that she will see justice concerning her daughter’s death.
“I want to know who did this to my child, and I’m not going to let this go,” Pirtle said.
Police are still investigating Jasmine’s death, and no arrests have been made.
“I really need to know why,” Pirtle said of her daughter’s death.
Pirtle is raising money for a memorial service for Jasmine on GoFundMe. The fund raised more than $5,400 in 10 days.
A private service was to be held Saturday in Chicago for family and friends of Jasmine, Pirtle said.
Jasmine was killed one week before 20-year-old Montgomery man Juanya Booker was shot to death Dec. 1 at a home in the 700 block of Fifth Street in Aurora. Four others were injured in the shooting.
The shooting deaths of Jasmine and Booker are not related, officials said.
Mayor Richard Irvin said during a media briefing Tuesday that he extends his condolences to the parents, family members and friends of the two killed “not only as mayor but also as a parent of a teenager and a young adult.”
“I hurt over their loss to young lives cut short due to senseless violence,” Irvin said.
Lewbel stressed that police need community cooperation to solve these cases. “No matter how small the information is, it can help our detectives put together the pieces of the puzzle,” Lewbel said.
Police are asking anyone with information to contact the Aurora Police Investigations Division at 630-2565500. Anonymous tips can be left with Aurora Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000.