An 18-year-old Illinois woman has been charged in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old girl in the Loop after Chicago police were contacted by a pastor of a West Side church who told them the suspect wanted to turn herself in, according to a police report.
Egypt Otis was charged with one count of first-degree murder. Otis was arrested after being identified as the person who fatally stabbed Heaven Taylor, police said. Otis was scheduled to appear for a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Just after 5 p.m. Wednesday, police met with the pastor and Otis outside a West Side church, and she was placed into custody without incident, police said.
Officers responding to a disturbance at a Loop Taco Bell about 11:20 p.m. Tuesday were flagged down by someone who described a stabbing nearby in the first block of West Van Buren Street. There, they found Heaven Taylor lying in the street, suffering from stab wounds to her chest. Officers applied a “chest seal.”
Several witnesses were still on the scene where a large group had been fighting. At least one person identified the suspect by name and told them Taylor had been in an argument with her when the suspect took out a knife and stabbed Taylor twice in the chest before fleeing,
Taylor, who was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, was pronounced dead early Wednesday.
Taylor’s mom, Chalesia Clayton, told the Sun-Times on Wednesday that her daughter had just started her junior year at UCAN Academy on the South Side.
She was “a lovable person” and had a 2-year-old son, whom Clayton said she will now raise.
“I just want her remembered as a good momma and a good auntie and a good daughter,” Clayton said. “This right here just hurts.”
UCAN released a statement Wednesday sending condolences to “Heaven’s family and her beloved son.”
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