When Anthony Rogers woke in the middle of the night to a pounding on his front door, he knew it likely brought grim news.

"It's a knock of urgency, a knock that says, 'We need to talk to you,' " he recalled.

At the door was a close friend of his daughter Aeyanuna and her mother, both fighting back tears as they said Aeyanuna had been shot near a Hyde Park beach Monday night and was at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Aeyanuna Rogers, 22, died the next day, just weeks after crossing the graduation stage atNorthern Illinois University.

Rogers and her friend were near the beach around 11:15 p.m. Monday when they saw several men fighting in a pedway, police said. Gunfire rang out and the women ran. But one of the shots struck Rogers in the back of the head.

By the time her parents arrived at the hospital, she was brain dead, authorities say.

A 17-year-old boy was shot in the leg but not seriously injured. As of Wednesday night, police hadn't made any arrests and had no detailed description of the gunman.

Aeyanuna was the city's seventh slaying victim of the holiday weekend.

Rogers said his daughter was a beaming, confident woman er, who instinctively avoided trouble. "She was the idol daughter," Rogers said.

The Thornton Fractional North High School graduate's charm was in being social -- going out with friends and participating in band -- while avoiding peer pressure and bad influences, her family said.

"We didn't allow Aeyanuna to be or act or behave beyond her age," Rogers said. "She wasn't the typical high school girl who'd go hang out late night and party."

Rogers said his family has been relying on prayer to cope with the tragedy. "We're church-going people, we're God-fearing people. We're not mean and spiteful people, " Rogers said.

"I don't hate them," he said of the people responsible for the shooting, his voice breaking. "I'm hurt. They took my daughter. But bad things happen to good people."

Funeral services are scheduled for Saturday at New Christian Joy Missionary Baptist Church in the city's Roseland neighborhood.