Brown Avenue residents were readying for bed early Sunday morning when shots rang out that left 21-year-old LaShuane Bishop dying in the street.

Bishop, of the 1900 block of Emerson Street and a mother of two, died early Sunday after being shot in the head around midnight, Brown Avenue residents said. It was Evanston’s first homicide of the year, police said.

Bishop later was pronounced dead on arrival at Evanston Hospital, 2650 Ridge Ave., said Cmdr. Michael Perry of Evanston Police Department.

Three others with Bishop were shot on the 1800 block of Brown Avenue. Evanston resident Fallon King, 19, suffered a gunshot wound to the neck, Perry said. She was in critical condition Sunday night at Evanston Hospital.

Evanston resident Robert Gresham, 19, and Deshawn Lewis, 24, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., each were shot once in the leg. They were treated and released Sunday from Evanston Hospital, Perry said.

Neighbors said they were turning off their televisions for the night when they heard shooting in the street.

Residents said they saw two unfamiliar cars stop on the north side of the street. The four victims got out of one car and began speaking with the passengers of the other car. Then the shooting began, they said.

King fell where she stood, but Bishop ran a few yards before collapsing in the middle of the street, residents said.

Yelling that he also had been shot, a man jumped into one of the cars as it sped north on Brown Avenue, residents said.

Stacy Mullings, 14, of the 1800 block of Brown Avenue, said she heard about six shots from inside her home.

Mullings ran outside after the police arrived and saw ambulances and fire trucks surrounding a blocked-off area. Several women were crying.

“I was really scared,” Mullings said. “At first there were bullets flying everywhere.”

Resident Shirley Osborne, 79, said she has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, and this is the first time she remembers a shooting.

“I could tell it was gunfire,” Osborne said. “I was pretty upset.”

Before the shooting, Bishop had been out with a good friend, 19-year-old Nakisha Miller.

The two women had attended a party on Dodge Avenue before going their separate ways at about 11 p.m., Miller said.

Bishop and her two young daughters had been staying with Miller on the 1900 block of Emerson Street for the past two months.

The women had been friends for four years – almost like sisters, Miller said.

“She was a cool girl,” Miller said. “She had my back when I needed her. She kept me out of trouble.”

Miller said Bishop attended classes each morning and searched for a job in the afternoons. She spent her evenings hanging out with friends.

Miller said she didn’t believe Bishop had been shot when she first heard the news early Sunday.

“People were calling me, but this is Evanston,” she said. “I didn’t really believe it until I got to the hospital.”

Miller’s eyes were puffy Sunday after spending most of the night at the hospital.

“I’m feeling much better today, ” she said. “I’m coping with it. But I will miss her and I am sad that she is gone.”

Police had no suspects Sunday night, Perry said.

EPD and 26 investigators with the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force will continue to investigate the incident, Perry said.

“It’s a shame something like this had to happen,” Perry said. “It’s a shame anyone has to lose their life to gun violence.”