Mistaken Identity: Cops Hope For Final Tip To Solve 3-Year-Old Uptown Homicide

Jennifer Ponton was killed when someone opened fire on her car in the 4500 block of North Broadway. | Google

About three years ago, a woman from Kankakee County was shot to death in Uptown when gangbangers mistook the car she was riding in for a rival gang member’s, police say.

Jenny’s mom, Sue, prepares to tell her story to Chicago Case Files | Facebook

Now, Chicago police detectives are asking for the public’s help in bringing the shooter to justice.

“I just need a little bit more information,” Detective Marc Leavitt said Monday. “Maybe you were one of the persons in the shooter’s car who didn’t know what you were getting involved with.” Leavitt is hoping that one last piece of critical info will come his way.

Around 1:15 a.m. on April 15, 2015, Jennifer Ponton and a friend came to Chicago to take a drive along the lake. They exited at Wilson Avenue, got a little lost, and eventually found their way to Broadway, Leavitt said.

With Ponton in the passenger’s seat, the friend turned south on Broadway. That’s when gangbangers in another vehicle mistook Ponton’s car for that of rival gang member Lil Pappy.

As the cars approached the Uptown Target store at the 4466 North Broadway, the bangers’ vehicle accelerated up to Ponton’s and someone opened fire, striking Ponton in the head. Surveillance video shows the shooter’s car taking a sharp left turn onto Sunnyside Avenue as the driver of Ponton’s car speeds south on Broadway, eventually arriving at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Chicago Case Files aired the surveillance footage last weekend:

In an early report about the killing, a commenter told Uptown Update, “They killed a mother of two that has never in her life been in trouble. In fact, you don’t usually meet people with not one enemy. Everyone loved her and still does.”

Tips about the murder of Jennifer Ponton can be submitted at 312-744-8261.

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About CWBChicago 4358 Articles
CWBChicago was created in 2013 by five residents of Wrigleyville and Boystown who had grown disheartened with inaccurate information that was being provided at local Community Policing (CAPS) meetings. Our coverage area has expanded since then to cover Lincoln Park, River North, The Loop, Uptown, and other North Side Areas. But our mission remains unchanged: To provide original public safety reporting with better context and greater detail than mainstream media outlets.