About two weeks after her 21st birthday, Oceana Jones was shot and killed while running away from a group of men who approached her in Auburn Gresham, a neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago. 

WGN reports that around 1 a.m., Jones and her boyfriend, who has remained unidentified due to his current connection as a witness to the ongoing case, were at a local gas station when they got a feeling that a nearby group of four to five men was following them. The men shouted at Jones’ boyfriend, asking for his gang affiliation. The couple began to run. 

“They thought I was a gang member… but I wasn’t,” Jones’ boyfriend told WGN. “I don’t gangbang.”

Jones’ boyfriend remembers her letting go of his hand at one point to hide, and he shouted back at the chasing men: “I’m not from around here.” 

The men then started shooting. 

“When he shot the gun at me, I ran back through this vacant lot,” Jones’ boyfriend said. “Oceana said, ‘NO!’ That’s when I heard an other gunshot.”

Jones was shot in the back and pronounced dead at the scene. According to CBS Chicago, Jones has never had a police record or gang affiliation. 

There are no suspects currently in custody. 

As Jones’ family awaits justice, they plan to launch a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her funeral. 

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