{"id":91189,"date":"2026-01-19T23:45:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/91189\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T23:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:45:06","slug":"kiara-jenkins-killed-in-woodlawn-chicago-shooting-near-64th-and-drexel-while-heading-to-mt-bethlehem-missionary-baptist-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/91189\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiara Jenkins killed in Woodlawn, Chicago shooting near 64th and Drexel while heading to Mt. Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (WLS) — A Woodlawn church community is devastated over the loss of one of their beloved members. They say they have no idea why someone would take the life of a woman who always poured into others.<\/p>\n

Those who knew Kiara Jenkins described her as a loving person who made others feel supported. The 36-year-old mother of five was devoted to her children and to her faith.<\/p>\n

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Jenkins was also a lifelong member of Mt. Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church in Woodlawn, where she was a welcoming presence, always ready to help others. Now, the church community is at a loss, devastated by the news that Jenkins was murdered.<\/p>\n

Chicago police say it happened Sunday around 4:30 a.m. Jenkins was found shot multiple times<\/a> in the alley behind her home near 64th and Drexel. Church members say she was on her way to their 5 a.m. service, which she attended regularly.<\/p>\n

Word of Jenkins’ murder slowly spread throughout the community. Michael Adams says he and his family recently moved to the neighborhood, a couple of doors down from Jenkins. He says he did not know her by name, but that she was always friendly.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tragic situation,” Adams said. “She just seemed like a nice lady. She spoke every time she saw us. She was coming and going, going to work, or whatever.”<\/p>\n

Adams says his block was quiet in the morning when he left for church, but when he returned home in the afternoon, there was a heavy police presence. At this point, police do not have a suspect or a motive in this case.<\/p>\n

“It was just chaos. They had everything wrapped up in tape everywhere, front and back,” Adams said.<\/p>\n

Jenkins’ five children range from a freshman in college to 10 years old. The eldest child told ABC7 that the family is trying to be there for each other and process what happened.<\/p>\n

Area One detectives are investigating.<\/p>\n

Police did not immediately provide further information.<\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — A Woodlawn church community is devastated over the loss of one of their beloved members.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[44987,153,155,154,44982,44984,44981,44985,44977,44983,758,44974,44986,44978,44979,44980,10949,44975,44976],"class_list":["post-91189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-44987","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-chicago-breaking-news","tag-chicago-crime","tag-chicago-news","tag-chicago-police","tag-chicago-shooting","tag-chicago-violence","tag-gun-violence","tag-kiara-jenkins","tag-mt-bethlehem-missionary-baptist-church","tag-shooting-chicago","tag-shooting-in-chicago","tag-shooting-today","tag-shots-fired","tag-woodlawn-chicago","tag-woodlawn-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}