Teen girl fatally shot in Austin had ‘intentions of going far in life’

A teenage girl who was fatally shot Sunday in Austin was on a date with friends when a man she knows began arguing with her on the phone moments before the shooting, according to a police report.

Melissa Castrejon, 17, was with three friends and a relative inside a Nissan SUV when she received a phone call from the man, leading to an argument between them, according to the report.

Castrejon’s friend drove the group to the man's home in the 5200 block of West Bloomingdale Avenue and honked the car horn to get his attention, the police report says.

They drove through an alley toward the 1800 block of North Latrobe Avenue, where the man and his friend were standing and allegedly opened fire on the car about 9:40 p.m., the police report says.

The driver crashed into four parked cars and continued driving to Castrejon’s home about two miles away, where they realized that Castrejon, who was in a back passenger seat, had been shot in her back, according to the police report.

She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and underwent surgery. Castrejon died the next morning, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Video surveillance footage of the shooting showed two males — one wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black pants and black shoes, and the other wearing a black sweater and blue jeans — fire shots at the Nissan SUV, the police report says.

They then ran to a nearby parked car and placed something in the trunk, and sprinted to a home on Bloomingdale Avenue, according to the report, which added the parked car they had gone to was later towed and held for the investigation.

A Chicago police spokesperson said Wednesday that no arrests have been made in the shooting and that the investigation is ongoing.

A fundraiser started by Castrejon’s family had raised more than $5,500 as of Wednesday afternoon.

“She had a whole life ahead of her,” Castrejon’s brother, Daniel, wrote. “She was young, full of life with intentions of going far in life and someone took that from her leaving her family [and] myself in disbelief and broken in ways you can’t imagine.”

Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest of anyone responsible for the shooting.

“This was a senseless act of violence that took the life of a young person far too soon,” Cook County Crime Stoppers Executive Director Paul Rutherford said in a statement.

“Someone out there knows who is responsible. We are urging anyone with information, no matter how small it may seem, to come forward anonymously and help bring justice to Melissa and her family, Rutherford said in the statement.

Anonymous tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-535-7867, and to Chicago police at cpdtip.com.