Subscribe
NewsOne Featured Video
CLOSE

Pamela Johnson, 33, was enjoying a peaceful Saturday night out on Chicago’s lakefront with her boyfriend, Eugene Jackson, 43, over the long Memorial Day Weekend, when everything suddenly changed.

The couple ran for their lives and into oncoming traffic after a group of “armed young men” approached them, Jackson told police. They were both hit by a white pickup truck in the southbound lane of Lake Shore Drive around 1:40 a.m., reports the Chicago Tribune.

The young men scattered after a nearby police officer in a marked car flashed his emergency lights, notes the report.

EMS services transported the couple to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where Johnson was pronounced dead. Jackson stayed overnight, but has since been released. He suffered minor injuries, but it was his heartbreak that was visible at the May 30 news conference.

“She was my baby. Also she was a loving daughter, a loving sister and a damn good mother. We’re all going to miss her,” Jackson said.

Johnson worked at a phone service center and had a 12-year-old son, according to DNAinfo.

Authorities announced on Sunday that they have not confirmed whether the group was armed and are working to sort through surveillance footage to corroborate Jackson’s claims.

Johnson’s family is asking for anyone who saw the altercation to come forward and work with the police for a resolution.

This is the second fatality on Lake Shore Drive over Memorial Day Weekend. A 15-year-old girl was also shot and killed while riding in a Jeep. Chicago has continued to suffer tremendously due to increased gun violence in the last week. Over 60 people were shot during the holiday weekend, writes NBC News.

SOURCES: Chicago Tribune, DNAinfo, NBC News | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Twitter

SEE ALSO:

Chicago Gun Violence Leaves 4 Dead, 49 Shot Over Memorial Day Weekend

Chicago Girl Banned From Prom Over Poem Speaks Out