Loved ones mourn Auburn Gresham woman killed while celebrating 25th birthday: 'The sister I didn’t have'

Kayla Winfrey didn’t have any siblings, but she acted as a sister for everyone from friends to cousins to older family members through acts of kindness and wisdom beyond her years.

On Tuesday morning, several loved ones reminisced — some tearfully — about Winfrey outside of her home in the 8000 block of South Morgan Street where she was shot Saturday night while celebrating her 25th birthday.

“Anytime you stepped in a room with [Winfrey] it was pure laughter and energy,” said Laquita Summerville, Winfrey’s 34-year-old cousin. “Anybody that came across her and met her, they loved her.”

"She was the sister I didn't have," 25-year-old Jaquay Harrell, one of Winfrey's close friends, said. "It felt like I lost a piece of me. Words can't even fathom the pain I feel."

“It’s a rollercoaster,” said Laquita Summerville, who lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and traveled to Chicago after hearing of her cousin’s murder. “We all just trying to help everybody get through it, but it’s not easy.”

“I close my eyes every day since it happened and I hear her voice and I get hurt,” Laquita Summerville added. “My heart breaks just thinking about it because she didn’t deserve none of that.”

Winfrey had about 30 to 40 guests who were “mostly friends and family” at her 25th birthday when a fight between two groups of women broke out about 11:45 p.m., according to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times.

It wasn't clear what the dispute was over but the fight moved out onto the front porch and a woman involved in the fight called the alleged shooter and asked him to come over, according to the report. When he got there in a silver or grey car, he opened fire, hitting Winfrey and a 36-year-old Matteson man, according to the report.

Winfrey was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to the chest less than an hour later.

The alleged shooter, who police said was age 26 and of the Washington Heights neighborhood, fled in the same car and no arrests have been made as of Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

Coming back from visiting the cemetery Tuesday morning, Winfrey’s mother, Equanda Summerville, said her daughter always helped youth in any way she could and was a youth mentor, with Chicago's SGA Youth and Family Services.

“She would give you the shirt off her back,” Equanda Summerville said. “She used to take double lunch to school, so she could feed her classmates.”

Equanda Summerville was at her daughter’s 25th birthday party but was upstairs when the fight broke out on the porch and didn’t have the chance to say goodbye before her daughter died.

“I was coming downstairs to see what was going on.” Equanda Summerville said. “She had already got shot, and her friends and my nephews removed me, wouldn’t let me come to see her laying down there.”

The family said one of the people allegedly involved in the shooting was a supposed close friend of Winfrey who would visit the house and eat Equanda Summerville’s home-cooked meals.

“I just want justice because she didn't deserve this,” Equanda Summerville said about the death of her daughter.

Laquita Summerville echoed calls for justice and "prays the justice system does right."

“That was our cousin, that was someone’s daughter, that was someone’s granddaughter, that was a family member,”,” Summerville said. “I feel like the shooter should no longer have freedom to be out in the community.”

Winfrey, who was a former EMT who worked for Elite Ambulance, studied business in college and survived a car accident in 2023. Summerville said she thought was going to lose her only daughter after Winfrey lost control of her car right around the corner of the building where the mother and daughter lived together. Three years later, Winfrey was just gaining the strength to walk normally again before she was shot and killed.

Winfrey was described as an “old soul” who enjoyed making rap music, being a comedian and playing basketball and was a devout Michael Jackson fan and had a full costume ready for the release of the Jackson biopic titled “Michael,” which is set to release April 24.

Loved ones don’t yet know what comes next following Winfrey's murder, but will push forward for her, their soul sister.

"I know she wouldn’t want me to sit here and be moping around all day," Harrell said. "As long as I can get up on my two feet, I'm gonna keep going for her, keep living [and] try to better myself in her image."