Close family friends said Erica Greene, 40, was a switchboard operator at the Drake Hotel who had no enemies.
"She got along with everybody," said JoAnn Garth, 47, who grew up with Greene in the West Chatham neighborhood. "That's why (the shooting) is so strange."
Police told neighbors Greene was targeted and shot by someone on foot. Her Kia Sportage crashed into a parked car before coming to a stop on a neighbor's front lawn a few homes away, police said.
Veejay Zala, a Chicago police news affairs officer, would not comment about a possible motive. No one was in custody Sunday.
The shooting happened about 7 p.m. Saturday in the 8000 block of South Princeton Avenue in West Chatham. Brick bungalows with manicured lawns line the quiet block, which neighbors said is safe and rarely sees violence.
Police said they found Greene unresponsive in her vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled Greene's death a homicide.
On Sunday, shards of glass remained in front of the two-story brick apartment building where Greene lived with her teenage daughter, who declined to comment. More glass was sprinkled across the front lawn of a home a few doors down. That's where Greene's SUV had come to a stop after hitting a parked vehicle.
Officers canvassed the neighborhood and said they looked at surveillance video from a camera at a neighboring building.
Nadina Thomas, who lives a floor above Greene and whose daughter was Greene's godchild, said she was playing Uno with her children and boyfriend when she heard four consecutive gunshots.
Her boyfriend ran to the dining room, then outside, and saw Greene's car on a neighbor's lawn.
"I looked at her like a sister," said Thomas, 26, sobbing and blotting her nose with a tissue.
Russell Menkes, the Drake Hotel general manager, said Greene worked at the hotel for about five years.
"She was very well-liked by her peers," Menkes said.
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