Little Village community fights for justice for 20-year-old Guatemalan migrant killed in Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) — A woman’s American dream turned into a nightmare. Reina Christina Ical migrated to Chicago from Guatemala four months before she was found murdered.

The Little Village community is now banding together, urging police officers to find her killer.

“They are fleeing from violence in their country, and they come and find this violence in Chicago,” said Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council.

Every step taken is a call for justice in the wake of Reina Christina Ical’s murder.

The 20-year-old was found Wednesday morning in an alley near 2400-block of South Drake Avenue Little Village with a gunshot wound to the head. Her death has been ruled a homicide, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.

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“We cannot stay silent when he have lost someone like that, and they leave her in the alley,” said community member, Selene Partida

“She came out of work and she was assassinated, and nobody knows what happened,” Enriquez added.

“We treat our neighbor like family, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do here with Reina Christina and her family,” said Kristian Armendariz, with the Little Village Community Council.

With all of Reina’s family in Guatemala, people who live in the community she briefly called home marching through Little Village, arriving near the area where her body was discovered, to be the local advocate in the search of the suspect.

“We are her family. We will not stop until we find the killer,” Enriquez said.

Community members plan to hold a funeral for Reina on Monday, while raising funds to send her body back to her family in Guatemala.

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