Mother: Young woman from Chaska killed in Chicago mass shooting aspired to be paramedic

The woman who died in a mass shooting in a Chicago park last week was from Chaska and aspired to be a paramedic, according to her family.

Keyo’nce Gladney, 19, was an unintended target of gunfire in Pottawatomie Park on Feb. 25 that also wounded her 22-year-old sister, KeiLaysia Gladney, the sisters’ mother said.

“This tragedy has devastated our family and community,” Tanecsha Jones posted in an online fundraising campaign for funeral costs. “Her time with us has been cut much too short.”

KeiLaysia Gladney was treated for her injuries and has since returned home to Chaska, Jones wrote.

The sisters were shot “in a senseless act of random gun violence while visiting friends in Chicago, Illinois,” Jones explained.

“It was such a nice day,” KeiLaysia Gladney told the Chicago Tribune. “We were all just hanging out. The sun was out.”

Police said Monday they have yet to make any arrests in connection with the shooting on the city’s far North Side.

“Keyo’nce had so many people in her life who loved her and so many dreams and plans for her future,” Jones continued.

Jones said Keyo’nce Gladney was attending the Gateway to College program at Hennepin Technical College in Eden Prairie and “planned to be a paramedic. She wanted to help others and always said she wanted to [have] foster children and make sure no one hurt them.”

Along with the sisters, a 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old man were wounded, police said. Two suspects fled on foot, police added.

“It was a targeted shooting targeting one of the young men,” Alderman Maria Hadden, who represents the area where the incident occurred, said in a statement released the next day.

The Chicago Tribune contributed to this report.