Single Mom of 2 Shot Dead at Chase Bank ATM in Illinois

A customer uses a Chase Bank ATM in Chicago, Illinois, on March 17, 2011. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Two people have been arrested after a single mother of two was fatally shot outside a Chase Bank in the southwest suburban of Worth, Illinois on Nov. 4, according to police.

Tamara Jailynn Johnson, 22, and Jason Jerry Joseph Johnson, 23, have each been charged with first-degree murder after Jonnie Angel Klein was shot to death on Saturday, the Worth Police Department said in a press release.

The two suspects are set to appear for a bond hearing at the fifth municipal district of the circuit court of Cook County on Wednesday.

According to the Worth Police Department, law enforcement officials responded to a report of a person in need of assistance in the 6800 block of West 111th Street in the afternoon hours of Nov. 4.

Upon arrival, police found Ms. Klein had suffered a fatal gunshot wound.

Family members told CBS 2 that Ms. Klein, who was a single mother to a 15-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, had simply been withdrawing money at an ATM to pay her bills when she was shot and killed. Her children were not with her at the time, family members and law enforcement officials said.

The South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force and the Worth Police Department immediately launched an investigation into the incident and multiple firearms were recovered, one of which is believed to be the weapon that was used to kill Ms. Klein. That firearm is currently undergoing ballistics analysis, police said.

Police noted that the two suspects have been linked to multiple armed robberies around the Chicago area.

The Cook County State Attorney’s Office is reviewing potential charges against the two suspects.

Ms. Klein’s family has started an online GoFundMe to help cover funeral expenses and to support her children following her death. Her family described her as a “devoted” single mother to her son and daughter who “worked tirelessly to provide for her family without complaint.”

An Illinois State Police car in downtown Chicago on March 2019. Leonard Zhukovsky/Shutterstock

Victim Was an ‘Amazing Human Being’

She was also her own mother’s caretaker, according to the fundraising page.

“She was a kind, caring, humble, loving, family member (mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, cousin), a friend to many, a dedicated worker, a provider for those in need, and an amazing human being all round,” the page states.

“She faced many battles head-on; she was a warrior that never gave up. Through her positive presence and servant attitude she shone God’s light into so many people’s lives without even knowing it! Although He called her home earlier than we can understand, she was able to touch so many lives. Her love will live on in our hearts and through her children,” it continues.

Ms. Klein’s death comes as a federal appeals court last week upheld Illinois’s new ban on assault weapons, arguing that it does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.

Known as the “Protect Illinois Communities Act,” the measure bans buying, selling, and owning some semiautomatic guns, including AR-15s, and was signed into law by Democrat Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in January, but faced immediate pushback from gun rights advocates, who argued that states could not ban weapons that were in “common use.”

Gun rights advocates claimed the new measure covered “many of the most commonly-owned semiautomatic handguns, shotguns, rifles, and magazines.”

The court, however, did not agree, finding that the ban amounts to a reasonable limit on the Second Amendment.

“Government may punish a deliberately false fire alarm; it may condition free assembly on the issuance of a permit; it may require voters to present a valid identification card; and it may punish child abuse even if it is done in the name of religion,”  U.S. Circuit Judge Diane Wood, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote in the 2–1 majority ruling. “The right enshrined in the Second Amendment is no different.”