Maria Roque (left inset), (right) the scene of the shooting (images via WBBM/screengrabs)
Two children witnessed their mother being fatally shot outside of her Chicago, Illinois, home, just hours before a court extended a protection order against the victim’s ex-boyfriend.
Maria Roque was just 34 years old when she was shot multiple times in the early morning hours last Wednesday in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago’s West Side. As of early Monday, a suspect has not been arrested, but Roque’s family members, including her twin brother Andres, told local CBS affiliate WBBM that they believe her suspected murder is linked to longstanding domestic violence.
Roque’s ex-boyfriend reportedly faced a warrant for violating a protection order the day the mother to a son and daughter was shot to death. Even more tragically, the report said, a protection order was extended on Dec. 13, hours after Maria Roque was killed. Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show that a protection order was issued on Nov. 7 and then extended on Nov. 28. Then, on Dec. 13, the protection order was extended again until Jan. 3, 2024.
Maria Roque protection order.
Maria Roque’s brother Andres told WBBM that his sister’s violent death left him heartbroken.
“I want to cry,” he said in an on-camera interview. “I want to throw things, but I can’t.”
The uncle to Maria Roque’s children also revealed the “horrible” truth about the kids witnessing the deadly shooting, her son even saying “I tried to save her.”
“Me hearing my nephew cry and say, ‘I tried to save her,”” Andres said in the interview aired by WBBM. “One in the car, and one he heard the shot, and see his own mom on the stairs, trying to breathe, and she put in CPR.”
“That’s the most horrible,” he added.
The grieving brother separately told local ABC affiliate WLS that he’s “feeling hurt and broken” that the loved one he “called everyday,” one who “would always help other people,” has been taken from the family by senseless violence.
“She was always lovely,” he said.
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