5-year-old girl fatally shot on Near West Side loved dancing, gymnastics

Reign Ware was always dancing across the floor.

It didn’t matter to the 5-year-old whether it was the living room at home or at her aunt’s birthday party — even birthday cake couldn’t deter the “TikTok queen,” as her mother, Raven Adams, called her. She would tumble like a gymnast wherever she could. Adams had planned to enroll her daughter in gymnastics classes, but was waiting until she “got bigger” so she wouldn’t get hurt.

Reign had been on track to start kindergarten next school year, a big step for the “smart” and “joyful” girl who also loved to swim on family trips to local pools and the Wisconsin Dells.

“She was just full of life,” Adams, a Garfield Ridge resident, told the Sun-Times Monday. “She just wanted to live, she just wanted to be a kid.”

Reign was shot to death about 3:30 Sunday morning in the 200 block of South Campbell Avenue as she sat in a car with her dad. Her mother said the family was leaving a family party: “The wrong place at the wrong time.”

The location in the 200 block of South Campbell Street on the Near West Side where Reign Ware, 5, was shot to death and a 24-year-old man wounded early Sunday. No one is in custody.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Her father was unhurt.

A 24-year-old man, whom the family did not know, was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound to his left thigh.

According to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times, nearly 60 shell casings of four different calibers were found at the scene where a black Jeep Cherokee had pulled up and someone inside began shooting. Investigators said others may have also fired shots from a nearby alley.

Police recovered 60 shell casings at the scene of Sunday’s shooting. No arrests have been made.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

No arrests have been made.

In the hours since the shooting, Adams said rumors have circulated about why Reign and her father were out so late. Reign’s 9-year-old sister, who Reign “learned everything from,” hasn’t been told about her death, but the family worries about what she may read or hear about the shooting.

From left, Reign Ware, her mother, Raven Adams, and Reign’s 9-year-old sister. Adams is asking for those who killed her daughter to turn themselves in.

“We’re just trying to be a little more stable than yesterday,” said Miss Adams, Reign’s grandmother, who declined to give her first name for fear of retaliation from those involved in the attack. “People are so cruel these days. … We try to remain calm and wrap our arms around each other.”

The girl’s mother is asking for the shooters to turn themselves in.

“I just want justice for my baby,” Adams said. “The violence just has to stop. How long is this going to go on? Until everybody kills everybody? Just let people live.”

The family has announced a GoFundMe to help with expenses.

Seven children 15 years old and under have been killed in Chicago this year.