African American female Beverly A. Lambert, age 25, was spending a warm Thursday afternoon in Morris, Illinois, doing the most ordinary thing a young mother does, picking up her baby from the sitter, when the ordinary broke. At about 4:25 p.m. on August 4, 2022, in the hallway of an apartment building in the 500 block of Twilight Drive, she was shot twice in the back of the head.
First responders moved in after the scene was secured; she was rushed to Morris Hospital and pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m., the sudden end of a day that had begun with work and would have ended with her son in her arms.
Police say the gunman fled in her car, triggering a shelter-in-place alert and a fast, multi-agency hunt. Investigators leaned on newly installed license plate reader technology to trace the stolen vehicle's path out of town, and by that evening officers had a 16 year old in custody in Joliet.
Authorities identified the suspect as Cortez Rice and alleged that after shooting Lambert he stole her vehicle and tried to get away. Prosecutors charged him as an adult with first-degree murder, six counts, according to the Grundy County state's attorney, and later a grand jury returned a broader indictment of 14 felonies that included aggravated vehicular hijacking. A judge set bond at $5 million while the case moved forward.
What unfolded in those hours, authorities said, was senseless and unprovoked. Earlier in the day the teen had been seen in the area asking people for rides; there was no known connection between him and Lambert.
To neighbors, the commotion felt surreal: police cars fanning out, a city text message telling residents to stay inside, the hum of a search tightening. By night, the emergency eased, but the loss had already settled in, friends and family describing a devoted young mother whose ordinary errand was interrupted by a random act of violence.
