A Portage Park man now faces murder charges in the fatal weekend shooting of an 8-year-old girl on the Northwest Side.

Michael Goodman, 43, is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the Saturday night slaying of Sarabi Medina, according to Chicago police.

Sarabi was shot in the head at about 9:40 p.m. as she was riding a scooter in the 3500 block of North Long Avenue. The shooting occurred shortly after her father bought ice cream for her, according to anti-violence activist Andrew Holmes.

After the child was shot, her father tackled the gunman who was then shot in the face with the same weapon, according to Holmes and a statement from Chicago police. Goodman was hospitalized in critical condition.

“When it happened, he returned from getting ice cream for him and her,” Holmes said. “He had asked her to go ahead and put up a scooter, and at that time they had noticed the individual on the street but they was trying to wonder what he was doing.”

Holmes said the individual was acting “erratically,” and neighbors saw him cross the street and discharge a gun. He said the father ran at the gunman and “football tackled him.” The gun then went off and hit the suspect in the face area, he said.

Holmes said the father told him he didn’t know the suspect. He said police are still trying to determine a motive for the shooting.

“They knew something was wrong with this guy,” Holmes said. “(He) didn’t seem to have it all, whether he had some mental episode or what we don’t know.”

Monday evening, neighbors, relatives and family friends gathered outside the girl’s home in the neighborhood, where a memorial had grown with candles, flowers, plush toys and handwritten notes.

Cries were muffled by tight hugs as family greeted each other. Attendees wore purple clothing — Medina’s favorite color — and brought purple and white helium balloons to release in her memory.

One of her aunts, Jacqueline Rodriguez, recalled how the family had recently been on a trip to a water park in Des Plaines over the weekend.

“She was having the time of her life,” she said. “She was a little daredevil,” another one of the girl’s aunts, Marisol Cruz, giggled.

Rodriguez said Medina had repeatedly asked her father to get in the water with her that day until he acquiesced, which made her smile from ear to ear. “He couldn’t say no to his little girl,” she said.

Family and neighbors recalled how much Medina loved her dog, riding her bike up and down the street and helping her father — a mechanic — fix cars.

Holmes said the girl’s mother was shot and killed in 2019. He said the shooting has retraumatized her dad.

“It’s a heartbreaking experience for him,” Holmes said.

Wilfredo Cruz, 69, of Old Irving Park, said he read about the shooting in the newspaper Monday morning and decided to visit a memorial outside Medina’s home. The memorial contained colorful flowers, candles, princess balloons and teddy bears.

Cruz said he has an 8-year-old grandchild who also likes to play outside.

“It’s unbelievable, this little girl just playing,” Cruz said. “Gets her life taken away like that — it’s crazy.”

Cruz said Portage Park is usually a quiet neighborhood, so the shooting is out of the ordinary.

“People move to the North Side trying to get away from the violence of some of the inner-city neighborhoods, and then you run across this,” he said.

Originally Published: Aug 07, 2023 at 12:39 pm