Serabi Medina loved to smile. She adored her two dogs — an American bulldog and a pit bull — and she enjoyed being outdoors, playing in her Chicago neighborhood and at the park. She was excited to start fourth grade later this month.
On Saturday, after riding her scooter on her street and buying treats from an ice cream truck, Serabi was shot and killed by a neighbor who came out of his apartment with a gun and targeted her, Chicago authorities said. She was 9 years old.
“Always happy, loving. She would run up and hug everybody. A smile that would light up Chicago,” her cousin told The Washington Post, speaking on behalf of the family. He asked not to be named because of privacy concerns.
Michael Goodman, 43, was charged with first-degree murder in Serabi’s killing. After a Tuesday hearing, he was being held without bail in Cook County, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
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Authorities said the Medinas did not know Goodman, who lives in an apartment building across the street from their residence in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood.
He is accused by authorities of coming out of his apartment with a gun, walking up to Serabi as she made her way toward her building’s front door, and shooting her in the head — as her father tried to protect her.
It was a second tragedy of gun violence for the family: Serabi’s mother was shot and killed in Chicago in 2018 while sitting on a neighborhood street.
After her mother’s killing five years ago, Serabi leaned on her strong bond with her father, her cousin said. She was her dad’s shadow and he was her rock, her cousin said, “raising her and getting her through not having her mother.”
The 9-year-old was riding her scooter on the sidewalk in front of their apartment building on Saturday while her dad talked with a few friends, according to a bond proffer written by Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord and presented at Goodman’s bail hearing Tuesday.
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One of her father’s friends gave Serabi money for ice cream, and she went over to an ice cream truck, returning a few minutes later with two ice creams. A few minutes later, the family heard the sound of a gunshot, which prompted the girl’s father to tell her to go back to their apartment, the proffer said.
Serabi was nearing the building’s front door when Goodman allegedly came out from his building holding a 9mm gun and crossed the street toward her.
As Goodman walked toward Serabi, her father allegedly shouted at him, asking what he was doing, and attempted to run toward his daughter. As he ran to Serabi, he saw Goodman “raise the firearm, point it at the [victim], and shoot the [victim] in the head,” McCord wrote in the proffer.
Serabi’s father then tackled Goodman, who was shot in the eye when his firearm discharged as they fell to the ground, according to the proffer.
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Other neighbors were out on the street at the time, Serabi’s cousin said, enjoying an evening of good weather after rain.
Serabi was taken to a hospital by paramedics, where she died. Her father’s three friends also witnessed the shooting.
Some neighbors told local reporters that Goodman appeared to have been irritated by noise. On Sunday, people left stuffed animals and flowers at a memorial on her street, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“The Medina family does not mourn Serabi alone. It’s a whole community, the city and even the nation mourns a little girl, only 9 years old, who deserved a chance at life,” said Alderwoman Ruth Cruz of Chicago’s 30th Ward, which includes the Medinas’ neighborhood.
She said calls and messages have poured into her office from people offering to help the family with a funeral or sending notes in Serabi’s honor. She said she would ask state and federal elected officials to meet with the community, saying government should work to prevent “senseless acts like this one.”
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“We have the Medina family, who should be planning [for] the daughter to go back to school, but instead they’re planning for her funeral,” Cruz said. “We all take it personally.”
On a GoFundMe page, Serabi’s family wrote, “She was only 9 years old, she had her whole life ahead of her.”
The United States saw a series of shootings this spring in which armed people killed others after seemingly normal interactions: A homeowner in New York was charged with fatally shooting a young woman after her friends pulled into the wrong driveway; a man was accused of shooting two cheerleaders in Texas after one of the high-schoolers accidentally got into his car. An Illinois man was accused of killing his neighbor after an argument over a leaf blower, and a Texas man allegedly killed five people because they asked him to stop shooting a gun in his yard late at night.
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In June, a Black mother of four, Ajike S. Owens, 35, was shot and killed in Florida by her White neighbor. In April, Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old who was picking up his siblings, was shot by a man after mistakenly ringing his doorbell in Kansas City, Mo. He survived.
Goodman was being represented by a public defender, according to the court.
Police searching his apartment found a fired bullet lodged in the wall and a receipt for the gun used in the shooting. Goodman’s hands were swabbed after his arrest and tested positive for gunshot residue, according to the proffer.
Serabi’s family is stunned and angry, her cousin said, but they have been moved by outreach from friends, neighbors and strangers through the GoFundMe page.
“Strangers [are] reaching out who are perplexed that we live in a world where a child can be killed like this, coldblooded in the street. I think that’s what’s touching everybody,” the cousin said. “This was the execution of a child.”
