Woman slain near beach was 'idol daughter'

Of the myriad of random thoughts that raced through Anthony Rogers' mind the night that his daughter Aeyanuna was shot in the head near a Hyde Park beach, it is the knock on his front door that is forever seared into his mind.

Fast asleep in bed beside his wife Lisa inside their Calumet City home, an abruptly awakened Rogers quickly recognized that the hard, persistent knock coming at his front door at 11:30 p.m. Monday likely brought grim news.
It's a knock of urgency, a knock that says 'we need to talk to you,'" he recalled.

Outside his front door, a teary-eyed pair -- a close friend of Aeyanuna's and her mother -- had devastating news: Aeyanuna had been shot and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

On Tuesday afternoon, Aeyanuna Rogers, 22, just weeks after crossing the graduation stage at Northern Illinois University, died at Northwestern, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.

Police said that Rogers and her friend had witnessed several men fighting in the pedestrian pathway near the beach around 11:15 p.m., when the sound of shots sent the young women running.

One of the gunshots struck Rogers in the back of the head, leaving her unconscious. By the time her parents arrived at the hospital, she was already brain dead.

A 17-year-old boy near the shooting suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, but wasn’t seriously injured. As of Wednesday night, police hadn’t made any arrests and didn’t yet have a detailed description of the gunman.

Aeyanuna was the city’s seventh slaying victim of the holiday weekend.

A violent end was the furthest thing from Anthony Rogers’ mind when it came to his beaming, confident daughter, who instinctively avoided trouble.

“She was the idol daughter,” Rogers said.

The Thornton Fractional North High School graduate’s charm lied in being both social, going out with friends and participating in band, while avoiding peer pressure and bad influences, her family said.

"We didn't allow Aeyanuna to be or act or behave beyond her age," Rogers said. "She wasn't the typical high school girl who'd go hang out late night and party."

With days left before his daughter’s funeral, Rogers said his family coped with prayers to alleviate their grief and for justice for the killer, though he said he harbored no hate.

“We're church-going people, we're god-fearing people. We're not mean and spiteful people, ” Rogers said.

“I don’t hate them. I’m hurt,” said Rogers, his voice breaking. “They took my daughter. But bad things happen to good people.”

Funeral services are scheduled for Saturday at New Christian Joy Missionary Baptist Church in the city’s Roseland neighborhood.