Woman charged in 'unprovoked' stabbing death of 7-year-old girl

Caroline Kubzansky and Madeline Buckley, Chicago Tribune on Oct 5, 2026

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CHICAGO — On Saturday morning, 7-year-old Eddimar Hernandez-Chacon was walking down the street holding hands with her older sister when a woman walking the other way lunged at the girls.

Shavon Gayden, 48, first hurtled toward Hernandez-Chacon’s 17-year-old sister before she grabbed the younger child and stabbed her to death in an unprovoked, broad daylight attack on a busy South Side thoroughfare, police and prosecutors have alleged.

Gayden tried to walk away, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pekara, but bystanders chased her down, injuring her in the process.

Gayden is charged with first degree murder in the slaying, but she did not appear for a detention hearing Monday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building because she remains hospitalized with a head injury, authorities said.

During the proceedings, though, prosecutors laid out some details of the attack. Judge Ankur Srivastava ordered Gayden to remain detained until she can appear for a full hearing, which was scheduled for Wednesday.

Around 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Eddimar and her sister were in the 8600 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue when Gayden walked up behind them. Just before the attack, Pekara said Gayden had been inside a nearby business and threatened a sales associate.

After that, she came up to the girls and pulled a knife out of a tote bag that had pumpkins on it, Pekara said.

Some of the attack was captured by surveillance video from a CTA bus, he said.

Bystanders who saw the attack stopped Gayden from leaving, Pekara said, and one hit her in the head, causing her to lose consciousness.

Chicago Fire Department paramedics took the child to Comer Children’s hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short time later.

Gayden, of the Calumet Heights neighborhood, was arrested twice in 2016 and 2019 for domestic battery charges, court records show. Both cases were dropped a short time later.

In September 2023, she was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and battery to a transit employee for allegedly threatening to stab a CTA bus driver. Records show Gayden pleaded guilty to the charge in October 2024 and was sentenced to two years of probation. Shortly afterward, though, she was charged with a new battery case. She pleaded guilty to that charge in July 2025 and was sentenced to six months of probation, and court records list her as having completed that sentence in January 2026.

Records from the 2023 case, in which Gayden admitted to threatening the bus driver, show that she skipped a court date in February 2025, leading Judge Natosha Toller to issue a warrant for her arrest. That warrant had apparently not been executed.

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